Less catastrophe-prone year gives Santam reason to celebrate
The absence of significant catastrophe-linked claims in contrast to the severe Knysna fire in June 2017 helped Santam report a 46% jump in net profit for the first half of its financial year.Sanlam’s short-term insurance subsidiary reported net profit of R1.2bn for the six months to end-June compared with R808m in the matching period.Headline earnings per share (HEPS) grew an even more impressive 72% to R10.18 from R5.93.Santam declared an interim dividend of R3.63, an 8% increase from R3.36 in the first half of its 2017 financial year.The insurance industry calls its top line "gross written premium", which grew 13% to R15.6bn.The group said its vehicle insurance arm, MiWay, "saw a slowdown in growth due to an increased focus on profitability, as well as the impact of the economic strain on consumers"."MiWay reported acceptable results with a claims ratio of 55.7% from 55.4% in 2017, however, negatively impacted by lower premium growth and increased management expenses, contributing...
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