Dipo Olowookere
By Dipo Olowookere
The board of LASACO Assurance Plc has announced the financial status of the company for the year ended December 31, 2018.
During the year, the insurer recorded an improvement from what was achieved in the previous year.
For instance, the profit before tax grew by 12 percent to N958.2 million from N854.3 million, while the profit after tax appreciated by 11 percent to N736.3 million from N661.9 million.
In the results released by the company, the gross premium written rose by 35 percent to N9 billion from N6.7 billion, while the net underwriting income jumped by 31 percent to N5.2 billion from N4 billion.
However, the investment income went down by 14 percent to N753.7 million from N874.7 million, while the other income dropped by 67 percent to N190.5 million from N576.4 million.
During the year under consideration, the net claims paid by LASACO Assurance reduced by 8 percent to N1.8 billion from N2 billion.
The board said the fees and commission income as at FY 2018 was N605.9 million in contrast to N318.4 million, while the reinsurance expenses increased to N3.4 billion from N3 billion, with the underwriting expenses at N1.5 billion in FY 2018 against N898.4 million in FY 2017 and total underwriting expenses at N3.2 billion in the period under review compared with N2.7 billion in the corresponding year.
An analysis of the firm’s balance sheet showed that the total assets depleted by 8 percent to N17.1 billion, while the total liabilities reduced to N8.6 billion from N10.4 billion, with the shareholders’ funds increasing by 4 percent to N8.5 billion from N8.2 billion and the earnings per share (EPS) rising to 13 kobo to 12 kobo.
Following the performance of the insurer, the board of LASACO Assurance is proposing the payment of a dividend of 5 kobo per share to shareholders for the year ended December 31, 2018.
At the end of December 2018, the company had approximately N10.2 billion invested in fixed income and N967million in equity instruments, according to the board in the financial statements.
