HNB Assurance reports significant acceleration in growth

Wednesday, 12 February 2014 00:00 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

HNB Assurance PLC has reported a sharp increase in its turnover during the year ended 31 December 2013 recording a 21% growth compared to the moderate growth of 8% achieved in 2012. This growth was largely fuelled by the Life sector which recorded an impressive 34% growth while the General sector also improved its performance greatly to deliver a growth of 9%. The company’s growth in the Life sector was well above the market growth while its growth in General Insurance was on par with the market. HNB Assurance also reported a healthy 11% growth in its Profit After Tax maintaining its excellent track record of consistently delivering growth in both turnover and profits, a difficult task in the highly competitive insurance market. This enabled the company to declare an attractive dividend of Rs. 3.25 per share recording an 18% growth in the dividend distribution.

A striking feature in HNB Assurance’s performance is that a similar contribution was made towards profits by both Life and General business. The company’s General Insurance portfolio generated a Profit After Tax of Rs. 207.6 million with a 12% growth over the previous year while it’s Life Insurance portfolio contributed a Profit After Tax of Rs. 181.5 million recording a growth of 10%. This is the second successive year in which General Insurance accounted for a larger share of the profit. According to HNB Assurance Managing Director Manjula de Silva: “The company has dispelled the widely held belief that General Insurance business has to be subsidised by Life Insurance by demonstrating that both lines of business can be operated at a similar level of profitability.” HNB Assurance PLC is one of the fastest growing insurance companies in Sri Lanka with a network of 51 branches. HNBA is a composite Insurance company with a rating of A (lka) by Fitch Rating Lanka for “National Insurer Financial Strength Rating” and “National Long- term Rating”. HNBA is also rated within the Top 100 Brands and Top 100 companies in Sri Lanka by LMD and HNB Assurance recently won International awards for Brand Excellence and HR Excellence and also won many awards for its Annual Reports at the Award ceremonies organised by the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Sri Lanka, ACCA Sri Lanka (Association of the Chartered Certified Accountants) and SAFA (South Asian Federation of Accountants)