By Dipo Olowookere
All is still not well with International Energy Insurance (IEI) Plc as its half-year results have revealed that it is still running at a loss despite efforts put in place to put it back into profitability.
Details of its unaudited financial statements for the first half of 2022 indicated that the underwriter recorded pre and post-tax losses.
In the first six months of the fiscal year, the company declared N74.5 million as its loss before tax compared with the N73.9 million pre-tax loss posted in the same period of last year, while the loss after tax was N76.7 million versus a post-tax loss of N88.0 million in the corresponding period of 2021.
Business Post observed that IEI put up this poor bottom line despite an improvement in its top line as gross written premium went up by 37.28 per cent to N415.0 million from N302.3 million a year ago.
Also, the insurance firm witnessed an increase in the gross premium income to N387.5 million from N323.7 million, as net premium income grew to N373.7 million from N288.2 million due to a significant reduction of 61.13 per cent in the reinsurance costs to N13.8 million versus N35.5 million in H1 of 2021.
However, the commission income moderated to N2.8 million from N3.0 million, leaving the net underwriting income at N376.5 million, in contrast to N291.2 million in the first half of 2021.
In the period under review, the team cut down the total underwriting expenses by 27.08 per cent to N134.4 million from N184.3 million as a result of a significant slash in the claims costs (N33.7 million versus N97.0 million in H1 2021). This offset the slight jump in the acquisition and maintenance expenses in the first six months of the year under consideration.
The N7.3 million generated from interest on bank and statutory deposits jerked the interest income of the company higher in the period under review from the N3.4 million generated from the same source a year ago, while earnings from other income streams, mainly from rental income, went down to N18.1 million from N63.2 million as a result of the absence of revenue from sundry income.
A look at the management expenses showed that N343.7 million was expended in the first six months of this year compared with N243.6 million in the same period of last year.
The reason for this rise was due to an increase in personnel cost (N182.3 million versus N130.9 million), filling fees (N43.5 million versus N0 million H1 2021), NAICOM levy of N4.2 million versus N3.0 million, and oil and diesel costs of N6.6 million compared with N4.7 million, among others.
