Bahrain’s BKIC Takes 10.8% Stake In Takaful International

Bahrain Kuwait Insurance Co, the kingdom’s largest insurer, has taken a 10.8 percent stake in local firm Takaful International, becoming its fifth largest shareholder.

BKIC bought 6.7 million shares of Takaful International valued at 573,112 dinars ($1.52 million) from Kuwait’s Osoul Investment Co, according to a statement on the Bahrain bourse.

The amount is small but comes at a time of growing pressure on Bahrain’s insurance sector to consolidate; it has 24 locally incorporated insurers including nine Islamic firms.

Takaful International is the largest Islamic insurance firm in Bahrain and ranks among the top five insurers in the country, but it swung to a loss of 1.7 million dinars in 2014 from a profit of 300,000 dinars a year earlier.

The firm was hit by a number of large claims in the second half of the year and also wrote off some strategic investments, it said in its annual report.

In January, Takaful International put 18.8 million of its shares up for sale via auction, representing 30.1 per cent of total shares outstanding, but no bids were placed at that time.

Its largest shareholders include Bahrain Islamic Bank with a stake of 22.75 per cent and Bahrain’s Investors Bank with 18.03 per cent.