DOHA: Qatar Insurance Company (QIC) the leading insurer in the Middle East and North African (Mena) region yesterday announced the financials for 2015 posting a record growth of 49 percent in its ‘Gross Written Premiums’ (GWP) at QR8.35bn ($2.29bn).

The QIC Group in a statement said the company benefitted from the successful diversification of the firm into more geographies and lines of business.

Sheikh Khalid bin Mohammed bin Ali Al Thani Chairman of the Board and Managing Director of QIC the Board of Directors approved the financial results at its meeting yesterday.

Key drivers of growth included reinsurance premiums generated through QIC’s dedicated global reinsurance subsidiary Qatar Re which grew at a rate of 116 percent now accounting for 50 percent of the group’s total premium income.

QIC Group’s consolidated net profit for the full year 2015 came in at QR1.06bn (about $292.2m) registering a growth of 3.8 percent compared to QR1.03bn (about $281.5m) for the same period last year.

This result reflects regional economic and investment headwinds due to lower oil prices and continued softening of global reinsurance and specialty insurance markets. Against the backdrop of growing regional and global financial market volatility the group’s net investment result came in at QR712m.

This was partially offset by a very strong net underwriting result of QR926m a significant increase of 39 percent on the previous year.

QIC’s overall profitability also benefited from the Group’s continued cost discipline.

Return on Equity for the reporting period declined to 18.1 percent against 18.4 percent in the previous year. This result compares favourably with both QIC’s regional peers as well as diversified international insurance and reinsurance groups. At December 31 2015 QIC Group’s shareholders’ equity stood at QR5.99bn up by 1 percent from QR5.92bn at the end of 2014.

Khalifa Al Subaey Group President and CEO of QIC Group said: “2015 was a challenging year for Middle Eastern and a number of global investment markets. On the back of our excellent geographical and product diversification and sustained profitability of our insurance and reinsurance book we have proven our resilience successfully navigating through the turbulent waters in 2015. Buoyant personal lines markets in the Middle East and a rapid expansion into global specialty (re) insurance markets in particular have offset the impact from declining equity markets in the Middle East.”

2015 was marked by a sustained pace of the Group’s international expansion. Some 67 percent and 13 percent of its overall gross written premiums are now sourced from outside Qatar and the Middle East respectively.

The Group’s reinsurance subsidiary Qatar Re ranked amongst global top 50 reinsurers continued to expand its global operating platform by opening a branch in the Dubai International Financial Centre and a representative office in Singapore.

In addition the company relocated to Bermuda now licensed as a class 4 reinsurer benefiting from the jurisdiction’s Solvency II equivalency a closer proximity to the US the world’s largest insurance market and improved capital efficiency.

Sheikh Khalid said: “We’re optimistic about our outlook for 2016.With renewed focus on international expansion in areas of high potential we aspire to be ranked amongst Global Top 50 insurance Groups by 2030.”

The Peninsula