Santam: Never mind the weather
Insurance giant has a great many irons in the fire, locally as well as elsewhere in Africa — and in Asia too
Whenever there is hail in the north and drought in the south, Santam has the broadest financial exposure to SA’s testy weather. The group’s underwriting ratio fell because of this from 9.6% in 2015 to 6.4% in 2016, which CEO Lizé Lambrechts says is in the middle of Santam’s target range. It is a number that would certainly make its main rival, Mutual & Federal, green with envy. And Lambrechts admits there was a lot of luck in the 2015 result. Only one of Santam’s asset classes made a loss in 2016 — the guarantee business had a R31m loss. The guarantee business, not to be confused with Credit Guarantee, offers surety bonds such as construction guarantees as well as court bonds. But there were some divisions that will want to forget about 2016. Property, usually the second-largest contributor after motor, saw its underwriting surplus fall by more than 90% to a highly modest R22m. There was a slew of large commercial property claims. Ironically, Santam patted itself on the back for inc...
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