By Adedapo Adesanya
Underwriting company, ARM Life Plc, completed the first quarter of the year in a loss, recording a loss after tax of N588.6 million.
According to the interim returns of the company for the period ended March 31, 2020, the loss posted in the period was in contrast to the profit after tax of N1.1 billion achieved in the corresponding period of 2019.
In the results filed to the NASD Over-the-Counter (OTC) Securities Exchange, where it trades its equities, the firm said a loss before tax of N588.6 million compared with N1.1 billion pre-tax profit in the same time of last year, while its earnings per share (EPS) stayed flat at 11.41 kobo.
On its top line, the company recorded a Gross Premium Written (GPW) of N4.03 billion, lower than N11.19 billion recorded in the corresponding period of 2019.
The gross premium income reduced to N3.6 billion between January and March from N9.6 billion in the comparative period of last year.
ARM was left with a net premium of N3.4 billion for the period versus N9.2 billion after a reinsurance expenses of N131.2 million in Q1 2020 as against N397.4 million in Q1 2019.
From January to March of this year, ARM Life Plc incurred underwriting expenses of N3.2 billion from re-insurance recoveries, gross benefits and paid claims, acquisition expenses for the period, and increase on annuity contract liabilities. This was in contrast to N12.8 billion used for the same purpose between the same period of last year.
The firm recorded an underwriting profit of N251.9 million in the period under review compared with an underwriting loss of N3.5 billion in the corresponding time of 2019.
The net income in Q1 2020 was at -N220.7 million compared with N2.8 billion in Q1 2019, while the administrative and finance cost amounted to N367.9 million versus N1.6 billion.
The balance of ARM Life Plc, which has remained the most active stock at the NASD Exchange this year, showed that total assets for the period stood at N34.4 billion as at March 31, 2020 in contrast to N32.9 billion as at December 31, 2019.
The company’s liabilities during this period stood at N29.9 billion from N27.8 billion in FY 2019.
Business Post reports that the company’s shares at the NASD Securities Exchange, as at the time of this report, were trading at 50 kobo per unit.
