Liberty Holdings profit increases by 18 per cent

Insurance and wealth management firm Liberty Holdings has reported an 18.8 per cent increase in net profits for the six months to June on improved investment returns and premiums.

The firm that owns Liberty Life Assurance and Heritage Insurance Company posted Sh422 million in profit-after-tax for the half year compared to Sh355 million last year.

“The group gross earned premiums increased by two per cent, with the Kenyan operations exceeding the prior period in the first half of the year compared to 2016,” said a message from the board of directors that accompanied the report.

Competitive pressures

Tanzanian business, however, faced a challenging beginning to the year due to a continued difficult trading environment further aggravated by competitive pressures.

“The outlook for the remainder of 2017 remains positive barring any unexpected fundamental changes in the legislative and macro-economic environment,” said the board.

Gross premium income rose marginally to Sh4.8 billion from Sh4.7 billion in a similar period last year, helping push up total income from Sh4.7 billion in the first half of last year to Sh5 billion this year.

However, claims and benefits shot up from Sh2.3 billion to Sh3 billion and was contained modestly by amounts recovered from reinsurance, which was Sh1.2 billion in the six months to June.