Sovereign trust insurance leads growth with operational efficiency

Onaolapo

 

Chuks Udo Okonta

Sovereign Trust Insurance (STI) Plc, going by the release of its 2012 result, has demonstrated that there are great prospects for the company in the years ahead. Of the twenty-one (21), companies who have made their results public, the firm seemed to have put in place a very effective and efficient operational mechanism.

According to the report, the underwriting firm with a Shareholders’ Fund of N3.1billion was able to underwrite a Gross premium of N7.5 billion, representing a 17.09 per cent growth increase over a sum of N6.4 billion recorded in the previous year. What this portends is that the company’s performance indicates proficient utilisation of resources during the year under review and the trend is likely to continue in that regard in subsequent times. The Return on Capital Employed, (ROCE) is put at 47.04 per cent while Gross Revenue on Capital Employed, (GROCE) stood at 2.39x. Another Underwriting Firm with a far-distant second position recorded 8.82 per cent ROCE and 1.98x GROCE with over N10billion Shareholders’ Fund. 

While commenting on the performance, the Managing Director/CEO, Wale Onaolapo, noted the fact that, although, the company recorded a Profit after Tax of N1.4billion, the dynamics of the marketplace in entrenching efficient service delivery and better returns on Shareholders investment in the years ahead necessitated the decision to plough back the profit into the business for the next financial year; a move that has received the blessing of the Shareholders at the just-concluded AGM of the company.

Furthermore, he attributed the performance of the company in 2012 to the deliberate knack for operational efficiency at all levels of the organisation.

He said: “The organisation parades an assemblage of vibrant, purposeful and result-oriented professionals that are fully poised and determined to achieve the company’s objectives and vision of becoming the leading brand, providing insurance and financial services of global standards while creating exceptional value for its shareholders.”

He stated that STI will continue to develop new strategies that will be executed in a proactive manner in exploiting the under-developed areas of the market to further position the company as a pacesetting brand in the industry and the preferred choice when it comes to qualitative underwriting .