BIHL GROUP LEADERSHIP TRANSFORMATION A SUCCESS IN FORTIFYING SUSTAINABLE GROWTH

GABORONE – Botswana Insurance Holdings Limited (BIHL) Group understands that for an organisation to achieve exceptional performance in a competitive and ever-evolving industry, the journey begins with strong leadership. Between 2015 and 2016, the Group saw the successful appointments of formidable chief executives across the business including at BIHL, Botswana Life Insurance Limited (BLIL) and Botswana Insurance Fund Management Limited (Bifm), to sustain the Group’s strong market position as a premier financial services operation in Botswana. The developments in the BIHL family leadership has indeed born good fruit, as the Group has yielded modest financial results for the six months ended 30 June 2016.

Major appointments that took place during this financial year to steer the behemoth BIHL Group ship included newly appointed BIHL Group CEO, Mrs. Catherine Lesetedi-Letegele, Bifm CEO Mrs. Neo Bogatsu, and more recently Botswana Life Insurance Limited CEO, Mrs. Bilkiss Moorad. The results report that in the midst of challenging market conditions, experienced by most key business lines, the Group has retained a good position and experienced elements of growth.

 “As a leading Group in the Botswana economy, we continue to maximise our efficiencies by taking advantage of our rich talent, our numbers and leveraging off our strengths to provide value for our customers and stakeholders, as we offer seamless and relevant financial solutions across our subsidiaries. In the midst of a challenging economic environment, which has seen the likes of UK’s unexpected exit from the EU and the underperformance of global equity markets, the Business’ financial position remains strong, with a stable outlook for future. We are exceptionally proud of our management and how they are steering the BIHL family ship, as they execute their respective mandates, while in turn delivering collectively on driving our twin strategy of growth and profitability,“  noted BIHL Group Chair, Mrs. Batsho Dambe-Groth.

Key highlights across the Group are as follows:

·         The Group sustained the new business value at P78.9 million.

·         Consolidated Investment Income, comprising of dividend income and interest income saw a significant increase to P370.5 million, compared to the P341 million                attained in the comparative 6 months.

·         The life insurance business achieved a moderate growth in Operating profit of 2 percent to P192 million from P188 million in the first half of the prior year.                        Recurring premium income grew by an impressive 8 percent from P486 million in June 2015 to P530 million during the first 6 months of 2016.

·         Bifm, which provides asset management services, and has shareholding in a business in Zambia, yielded a steady 2 percent increase year on year in total assets                   under management (AUM) to P21.1 billion (Bifm P17.6 billion and Zambia P3.5 billion). This came on the back of strong inflows to the Unit Trust business.

The short term insurance business, though has posted subdued financial results with an operating loss of P0.7 million compared to P1.3 million operating profit recorded in the first half of 2015, total net income for general insurance increased to P23.9 million in 2016 from P22.98 million in the first half of 2015. The business had also undertaken a successful restructuring of Legal Guard following the sale of general insurance lines business in August 2014.

Concluded Mrs. Dambe-Groth, “It is worth noting that the Business has had quite a challenging season in the face of higher costs in operations, movements in the global economy including that of Brexit and the volatility of global equity markets. Thanks to our robust leadership and the formidable legacy of those that paved the way before, we have pushed ourselves to work even harder to continuously better our approach to doing business and seizing overlooked opportunities for achieving sustainable growth and profitability. This attitude has indeed carried us through this tougher economic climate, to retain our strong market position as a leading financial services Group.”