A year after returning to profitability, Royal Exchange’s half-year profit slows by 62%

Royal Exchange, a Nigerian notable insurance company, has reported a 62 percent slowdown in its half-year profit to June 2021 amid the decline in premium income and increase in expenses, as compiled from the company’s unaudited consolidated financial statements for the period ended 30 June 2021.

The profit report by the insurance company in the first six months of 2021 is the third-lowest in the company’s history since it started publishing its financial results in 2012. The company returned to profitability in 2020 after posting a loss of N631.46 million in the comparable period of 2019.

Analysis of the half results of Royal Exchange showed that its profit plunged by N261.56 million to N158.52 million in the first half of 2021 from N420.08million in the same period of 2020.

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The company’s performance in the review period was on the back of the reduction in its income. Royal Exchange’s net income was down 15.39 percent to N1.34 million in the first six months of 2021 from N1.59 million in the corresponding period of 2020.

Despite the slowdown in its profit for the review period, the company which provides general and special risks insurance products to the insuring public saw a spike in its total expense to N1.11 billion in June 2021 from N971.49 million reported in the same period of the previous year.

As a result, the company’s earnings per share reduced by 80 percent to N1 in the first half of the review year from N5 in eth comparable period of last year.

Meanwhile, the Nigerian Exchange (NGX) Limited on Monday lifted the suspension placed on the trading in the shares of Royal Exchange Plc.

Royale Exchange and three other companies were prevented on July 2, 2021, from trading their equities on the exchange over their failure to file their financial statements as they earlier agreed when they requested to trade their stocks publicly.

A message to the investing public on Monday, October 4, 2021, from the stock exchange said the embargo was removed.

“In view of the companies’ submission of these financial statements, and pursuant to Rule 3.3 of the default filing rules, trading licence holders and the investing public are hereby notified that the suspension placed on trading on the shares of African Alliance Insurance and Royal Exchange has been lifted,” the exchange said.