KAZAKHSTAN: pre-tax profit of non-life insurers up 39% in 2020 despite the pandemic

11 March 2021 —
The 2020 "pandemic" year for some insurers in Kazakhstan turned out to be better than 2019. Only 7 insurers ended 2020 with losses from insurance activities, among them there were 4 non-life insurance companies (vs 9 non-life insurers in 2019).

In general, considering the results from both insurance and investment activities, all non-life insurers except one recorded positive financial results in 2020, Allinsurance.kz reports.

GWP of Kazakhstani non-life insurers last year increased by 9%, profit before tax - by 39% to KZT 92.6 billion (~EUR 0.18 billion*). Although profit from insurance activities decreased by 20% to KZT 19.6 billion, this was largely offset by income from investment activities, which increased by 73.4% to KZT 73 billion.

The average profitability of insurance activities of non-life insurers in 2020 decreased by only 8.8%. Of the 19 non-life insurers, 11 companies recorded positive profitability (vs 8 companies in 2019). At the same time, indicators of non-life insurers on average across the market in 2020 remained almost unchanged - the (net) loss ratio was 44.5% (vs 44.1%), the (net) expense ratio - 27.4% (vs 28.5%), the share (net) of agent remuneration in premiums amounted to 19.3% (vs 17.1% in 2019). Of all non-life insurers, 4 companies had profitability of insurance activities above the market average.

Experts note that the pandemic had practically no effect on the results of the local insurance market due to that the level of development of insurance in Kazakhstan does not yet allow offering such insurance products and covering the risks that are present in the markets of other developed countries, such as insurance of business interruptions, cancellation of events etc. Therefore, the financial performance of Kazakhstani non-life insurers remained stable.

* at the following exchange rate:

EUR 1 = KZT 516.79 (as of 01.01.2021)



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