Walaa’s higher profits driven by improved insurance services results, investment portfolio: CEO

Johnson Vargas, CEO of Walaa Cooperative Insurance Co.

Johnson Varughese, CEO of Walaa Cooperative Insurance Co., attributed the increased 2023 profit to the noticeable improvement in the insurance services results and better performance of the insurer’s investment portfolio in the Saudi market, along with higher interest rates on deposits. 

The key enabler of earnings from insurance services was the notable upswing in the motor insurance services results. This was driven by the decrease in insurance services expenses due to the corrective operations that the company took under its underwriting strategy, Varughese explained in an interview with Argaam.

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Losses from the motor insurance services segment shrank to SAR 9 million in 2023, compared to the SAR 129 million adjusted loss in 2022, the top executive pointed out. He added that profits of the protection & savings product sharpened from SAR 207,000 in 2022 to SAR 26.49 million in 2023.

Varughese highlighted that, in Q4 2023, the motor and the medical insurance premiums increased by SAR 202 million and SAR 64 million year-on-year (YoY), respectively. Sequentially, they climbed by SAR 30 million and SAR 50 million, respectively.

The sectors with the highest contribution to profits in Q4 2023 were the property & casualty insurance sector and the protection & savings sector, the CEO added.

The YoY growth rate of 2023 written insurance premiums was 4% for medical insurance, 80% for motor insurance, 42% for engineering insurance, 16% for property & casualty insurance, and 33% for protection & savings insurance.

According to data available on Argaam, Walaa swung to a profit of SAR 148 million by the end of 2023, compared to a loss of SAR 68.1 million in 2022.