UAE’s Salama reports net profit of Dhs19.20m for H1 2022

Islamic Arab Insurance Company (Salama) has reported a net profit of Dhs19.20m in the first half of the year.

The company said it remained on track to achieve its operational objectives in H1 2022, led by the continued development of its digital capabilities, bolstering other aspects of the business, including prudent underwriting, client portfolio diversification, new partnerships, and improved distribution channels – providing seamless access to its offerings across varied consumer segments.

Salama’s gross written contributions reached Dhs574m in the first half of the year in a price-sensitive and competitive market environment.

The first half also saw Salama establishing new strategic tie-ups with banks in the UAE to provide omnichannel Takaful solutions to bank customers.

In addition, Salama partnered with insuretech providers such as Wellx, to provide hyper-personalised takaful solutions to their customers via wearables technology.

As part of its strategy to cater to a diverse customer base and reach untapped market segments, Salama has partnered with policybazaar to offer online insurance for non-GCC specification cars. Through this partnership, Salama is providing seamless and fast online insurance for owners of non-GCC-specification cars who have not had access to comprehensive auto insurance in the past.

As more partners, including banks, broker aggregators and e-commerce platforms, choose Salama as their preferred digital takaful solutions provider for end-to-end policies onboarding and issuance, the number of retail and e-commerce policies issued by Salama online has also multiplied.

The Takaful insurer has also been busy expanding its direct-to-customer portfolio with product lines such as enhanced medical, motor, home, pet insurance and recently added essential benefit plan that allows instant issuance of policy and generates health card online.

This year, the company launched a WhatsApp channel for customers to access its services and products and is now one of the first providers to offer end-to-end pet insurance through Whatsapp. Users can now fill out their application, make the payment and get the insurance policy documents issued – all through Whatsapp.

Jassim Alseddiqi, Salama’s chairman said: “The first six months of the year have been pivotal for Salama, as we have made visible progress in bringing innovative takaful solutions to more segments of the population – all thanks to our well-executed digital-led business transformation initiatives. Having achieved so much in the first half of the year, we are optimistic about the progress we can make for the rest of the year. This is underlined by our strong commitment to value creation in line with shareholder and policyholder expectations.”

Fahim Al Shehhi, CEO of Salama, said: “Salama’s robust performance in the first half of the year is a testament to the progress we have made in our key strategic pillars that include digitalisation, innovation and collaboration. With our all-encompassing digital capabilities, we are well positioned to grow and expand, led by an aggressive customer acquisition strategy. Growing our life and non-motor businesses is also a focus for us. We are confident about our prospects for the second half of the year and reaffirm our commitment to making Takaful and its benefits as seamless as possible for everyone.”

In other news, the Quarterly Economic Review issued by the Central Bank of the UAE (CBUAE) for Q1 2022 has shown that the insurance sector in the UAE reflected growth, with an increase in the number of insurance policies, gross written premiums, and licensed insurance-related entities. The number of insurance companies year-on-year remained the same in Q1 2022 at 62.

Read: Total invested assets in insurance sector rise 5.4% to Dhs77.8bn in Q1 2022: CBUAE