CICL expands global presence

Colombo: Ceylinco Insurance Co. Ltd (CICL) will go in for a major regional presence in Asia and the Gulf with at least five more offices to its already flourishing overseas network.

Ceylinco Insurance, which already has overseas presence in Nepal, Bangladesh, Mauritius, the United Arab Emirates, Oman, Qatar and Kuwait will go in for at least five offices in Asia and the Gulf regions.

The agreement for the Saudi Arabian office has already been signed and should be opened soon. But the venues of the new offices are yet unknown.
The company will come out with a Rs. 1,487.50 million non voting share issue where 8.5 million shares will be offered at the rate of Rs. 175 per share (premium of Rs. 165).

The reason for the non voting share issue is not only for the overseas expansion, but also investments into the local healthcare sector and also for the Insurance Board of Sri Lanka regulations to increase company’s capital and also to broad base the ownership company, Ceylinco Insurance Chief Executive Director Ajith Gunawardena said.

“We will also use this capital to further expand our branch network, which currently stands at 400,” he said.

He said that no sooner than the company gets the formal approval from the Colombo Stock Exchange the shares will be on offer at Rs. 175 which makes Ceylinco Insurance on of the very few corporates to issues shares at this price range. This is an exciting investment opportunity for investors, he said.

Ceylinco Insurance Finance Director Nihal Peiris explained that the financial structure of the company was sound with the growth of the total assets by 17.2 per cent in the last financial year with the investments Rs. 17.6 billion which is a growth by 11 per cent over the previous year.

Market capitalisation has also grown by 10.5 per cent to Rs. 3.7 billion while the Market Value of the share was also as high as Rs. 220.

The brand value of the company has been placed at Rs. 6.5 billion and the consolidated Enterprise Value of the company has been valued at Rs. 25 billion.

Ceylinco Insurance has also emerged as the first Insurance Company in Sri Lanka to top the Rs. 1 billion profit mark.

The gross consolidated premium income of the company for the past financial year was Rs. 17.2 billion. It has a general Insurance Income at Rs. 1.035 billion while the Life Insurance income is Rs. 800 million.

The motor insurance portfolio is Rs. 6.2 billion while non-motor insurance portfolio is Rs. 4.1 billion.