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Chairman R. Renganathan (left) and Managing Director/CEO Thushara Ranasinghe
Ceylinco Life policyholders received a mammoth Rs. 18.9 billion in net claims and benefits in 2022, as the company achieved its 19th consecutive year of market leadership in Sri Lanka’s life insurance sector with gross written premium income of Rs. 29.16 billion for the 12 months ending 31 December.
Premium income grew by a healthy 14% despite the unprecedented challenges of the year, and the figure of Rs. 18.9 billion for net claims and benefits represented a growth of 48.9% over the Rs. 12.7 billion paid in respect of 2021, and was the highest net claims and benefits paid in Ceylinco Life’s history, the company said.
Total revenue for the year grew by 21% to Rs. 49.2 billion, with investment and other income improving by an impressive 33% to Rs. 20 billion, an announcement by Ceylinco Life said.
The company’s Life Fund grew by 12.7% to Rs. 134.9 billion as of 31 December 2022, after a transfer of Rs. 4.8 billion to the Shareholders Fund in respect of the year under review.
Ceylinco Life’s total assets grew by Rs. 17.8 billion or 10.2% to stand at Rs. 191.5 billion at the end 2022, while its investment portfolio recorded an increase of 7.4% in value over the 12 months to reach Rs. 165.9 billion as of 31 December 2022.
“Our performance in a year that saw disposable incomes contract alarmingly due to the additional financial burdens placed on the populace, reflects the value of the trust and confidence we have built over more than three decades, and the importance of our unrelenting focus on business fundamentals,” Ceylinco Life Managing Director/CEO Thushara Ranasinghe commented. “We have always believed that the business of life insurance is about paying claims and benefits, which is clearly reflected in our figures for 2022, and is one of the foundations for the trust of our customers.”
Ceylinco Life’s basic earnings per share for the year amounted to Rs. 152.64, an improvement of 12.7% while net assets value per share stood at Rs. 987.98 as of 31 December 2022. Return on assets for the year was 3.98% and return on equity 15.45%.
Adjudged Sri Lanka’s ‘Brand of the Year’ and ‘Service Brand of the Year’ by the Sri Lanka Institute of Marketing (SLIM) and ‘Best Life Insurer in Sri Lanka’ by World Finance for the ninth consecutive year in 2022, Ceylinco Life has been the country’s leading life insurer for more than half of the 35 years it has been in existence. The company was also ranked the ‘Most Valuable Life Insurance Brand in Sri Lanka’ by Brand Finance and certified a ‘Great Workplace’ in Sri Lanka for the third consecutive year in 2022. Ceylinco Life has close to a million lives covered by active policies and provides innovative life insurance solutions which offer protection while de-risking the goals and ambitions of the company’s policyholders.