General Accident Insurance Company Jamaica Limited (General Accident) reported last Friday an unaudited net profit of $192.53 million for the nine months ended September 30, 2019. This represents a 34 per cent increase compared to the previous corresponding period.

Chairman of General Accident PB Scott, in reporting to stockholders, indicated that the company achieved a book value of $2.03 billion and enjoyed improved technical results as underwriting profit of $108.64 million represents positive growth over the prior period’s underwriting loss of $27.70 million.

“For the period, General Accident’s underwriting performance improved over 2018, as we booked gross written premium of $8.9 billion, an increase of 21 per cent over the same period last year. Net earned premiums improved by 28 per cent to $1.53 billion, while net claims charges grew by 14 per cent to $987 million,” he stated in the report.

Underwriting refers to the process that a lender or other financial service uses to assess the creditworthiness or risk of a potential customer, while premium is the amount paid periodically to the insurer by the insured for covering his/her risk.

He further added that General Accident, for the ninemonth period, achieved an investment income of $113.73 million, 5.5 per cent below the prior period which recorded $120.32 million. This resulted in an annualised return of 7.12 per cent.

In the latter part of September, General Accident acquired a 55 per cent stake in Motor One Insurance Company, a Trinidadian motor insurance headquartered in Port of Spain, with a large branch network throughout Trinidad.

Scott declared that the consolidated impact for the 14 days are not included in the nine-month financial report, but will be reflected in the fourth quarter report.

Earnings per share for the period under review ended at $0.19, an increase compared with the $0.14 recorded in the prior corresponding period. — BY Abbion Robinson