IGI’s subsidiary to list shares on Kenyan Stock Exchange

Industrial And General Insurance plc’ subsidiary in Uganda, National Insurance Corporation Limited (NIC has concluded plans to cross-list its shares on the Nairobi Securities Exchange in neighbouring Kenya.

The decision to be listed on the Nairobi bourse, East Africa’s most advanced capital market, was reached during the 13th Annual General Meeting of shareholders held recently in Kampala, the Ugandan capital. The move is part of the strategic initiatives aimed at giving NIC better access to a diverse pool of investors and improving its competitive edge in the East African region.

Explaining the need to cross-list to the shareholders, NIC’s Vice Chairman, Martin Aliker, who represented the Chairman, Remi Olowude, said: “Cross-listing of the shares will lead to better visibility, improved competitive edge in the regional markets, increased share liquidity, better price discovery, access to a wider pool of both sophisticated and retail investors, and better prospects of raising capital.”
IGI plc acquired majority shareholding in the NIC in 2005 after a competitive international bidding process. IGI is also the largest single shareholder of SONARWA, the number one insurance company in Rwanda, with a shareholding of 64 percent.

Bayo Folayan, managing director of NIC, , said the company intends to change its name from National Insurance Corporation Limited to NIC Holdings Limited. “We are changing the name of the company in order to separate the life and non life businesses in line with the Insurance law, which stipulates that life and general business be separated into two different bodies. We are going to start the approval process of the various bodies in Uganda and Kenya,” he said. The deadline for all insurance companies is December.

The shareholders unanimously approved the issuing of 819,661,942 new shares worth Shs20, 491,548,550 at the current market price as bonus shares to shareholders who were on the register of Shareholders on June 20, 2014. According to the company’s 2013 annual report, the company’s premium increased in 2013 by 22 per cent from Shs7.83 billion recorded in 2012 to Shs9.52 billion as at December 31, 2013. Its total assets grew by 3.6 per cent from Shs82.053 billion in 2012 to Shs85.04 billion, while underwriting profit also increased by 34 per cent from Shs4.36 billion in 2012 to Shs.5.5 billion in 2013.

 

Modestus Anaesoronye