13 Sep 2016

Botswana Insurance Holdings Limited (BIHL) Group understands that for an organisation to achieve exceptional performance in a competitive and ever-evolving industry, the journey begins with strong leadership.

A press release from BIHL says between 2015 and 2016, the Group saw the successful appointments of formidable chief executives across the business including at BIHL, Botswana Life Insurance Limited (BLIL) and Botswana Insurance Fund Management Limited (Bifm), to sustain the Group’s strong market position as a premier financial services operation in Botswana.

It says the developments in the BIHL family leadership has indeed born good fruit, as the Group has yielded modest financial results for the six months ended 30 June 2016.

Major appointments that took place during this financial year to steer the behemoth BIHL Group ship included newly appointed BIHL Group CEO, Ms Catherine Lesetedi-Letegele, Bifm CEO Ms Neo Bogatsu and more recently Botswana Life Insurance Limited CEO, Ms  Bilkiss Moorad.

The results report that in the midst of challenging market conditions experienced by most key business lines, the Group has retained a good position and experienced elements of growth.

It further says as a leading Group in the Botswana economy, it continue to maximise its efficiencies by taking advantage of its rich talent, numbers and leveraging off strengths to provide value for customers and stakeholders, as it offers seamless and relevant financial solutions across its subsidiaries.

In the midst of a challenging economic environment, which has seen the likes of United Kingdom’s unexpected exit from the European Union and the underperformance of global equity markets, the Business’ financial position remains strong, with a stable outlook for future.

“We are exceptionally proud of our management and how they are steering the BIHL family ship, as they execute their respective mandates, while in turn delivering collectively on driving our twin strategy of growth and profitability.” noted BIHL Group Chair, Ms Batsho Dambe-Groth.

The release says key highlights across the Group are sustained the new business value at P78,9 million; consolidated Investment Income, comprising of dividend income and interest income saw a significant increase to P370,5 million, compared to the P341 million attained in the comparative six months.

It says the life insurance business achieved a moderate growth in operating profit of two per cent to P192 million from P188 million in the first half of the prior year. Recurring premium income grew by an impressive eight per cent from P486 million in June 2015 to P530 million during the first six months of 2016.

Bifm, which provides asset management services, and has shareholding in a business in Zambia, yielded a steady two per cent increase year on year in total assets under management (AUM) to P21.1 billion (Bifm P17,6 billion and Zambia P3,5 billion). This came on the back of strong inflows to the Unit Trust business.

The short term insurance business, though has posted subdued financial results with an operating loss of P0.7 million compared to P1.3 million operating profit recorded in the first half of 2015, total net income for general insurance increased to P23,9 million in 2016 from P22,98 million in the first half of 2015.  

The business had also undertaken a successful restructuring of Legal Guard following the sale of general insurance lines business in August 2014.

It is worth noting that the business has had quite a challenging season in the face of higher costs in operations, movements in the global economy including that of Brexit and the volatility of global equity markets, said Ms Dambe-Groth.

“Thanks to our leadership and the formidable legacy of those that paved the way before, we have pushed ourselves to work even harder to continuously better our approach to doing business and seizing overlooked opportunities for achieving profit. ENDS