Insurance

The Group

Enterprise Insurance Company (EIC) was established in 1924 and is the oldest insurance company in Ghana. It was originally known as Royal Exchange Assurance Corporation UK, before it changed its name to Guardian Exchange Assurance Ghana and finally to EIC in 1977.

EIC was listed as one of the pioneering companies of the Ghana Stock Exchange (GSE) in 1990, making it the first insurance company to be listed on the GSE. In the year 2000, Enterprise Life was incorporated in a partnership between EIC and African Life through the International Finance Corporation. Enterprise Life has seen impressive growth since 2001 and currently is the second-largest life assurance company in Ghana and also has a presence in the Gambia.

For the purposes of sustained growth, and to take advantage of profitable business opportunities in sectors of the economy other than insurance (as well as returning increased value to shareholders, clients and employees), new subsidiaries have been established which include trustees and properties. Enterprise Trustees is a pension administration company, while Enterprise Properties is the real estate development and investment wing of the group.

The Enterprise Group was listed on the GSE in 2010. The group is managed by a team of proven professionals who bring their experience and expertise to bear in steering the affairs of the group, ensuring exceptional service to clients, job enrichment to staff and increased returns to shareholders and all stakeholders.

The group has four operating subsidiaries, namely: EIC, Enterprise Life, Enterprise Trustees and Enterprise Properties. Net income for the group increased by 24.9% to GHS288.4m ($80m) in FY14 over the previous year. Slower growth in both premium and investment income accounted for the lower growth rates experienced in FY14 compared with trends in the last few years. The total assets of the group grew by 40.4%, primarily due to growth in the value of the property portfolio, whose market values are denominated in hard currency and benefited from the local currency depreciation in FY14.

Development Strategy

The group will launch funeral services in the latter part of 2015 and also form a strategic collaboration with Sanlam Emerging Markets to accelerate the growth of the general insurance business through product and service innovation so as to reach into new categories and also to underserved market segments. The group advanced plans to create customer service channels with the capacity and capability to provide one-stop shop frontline customer support on all products and services in any company business.

Forecast

Despite the challenges of the economy of Ghana, we estimate revenue to increase by 28.3% for FY15 compared to the FY14 figure of 24.9%. This is in consideration of the efforts to accelerate the growth of the general insurance business through product and service innovation, and the goal of extending the reach of the group to categories that are new to Ghana and to underserved market segments. Improvement is expected in investment income and gross insurance premium revenues by 9.9% and 23.6%, respectively. Expected EBITDA is estimated to improve by 41.2% in 2015. This will boost expected net income by 39.4% for the year. The EPS is estimated to rise to about GHS0.35 ($0.10). Despite a more competitive environment, we expect the company to do well, mostly due to an expansionary drive, the establishment of new branches, changes in operational systems, centralising back office procedures and seeking industry leadership through charting new business segments and service delivery methods.