Ceylinco Insurance will soon open a Share Issue for 8.5 million shares priced at Rs.175 per share.

Ceylinco Insurance (General and Life) said that it was the first listed insurance company to reach an after tax profit of Rs.1 billion in 2007.

The consolidated gross premium grew to Rs. 17.2 billion during the year with general insurance recording a gross premium of Rs. 10.35 billion and life insurance Rs. 6.9 billion.

The increase in premiums collected for general insurance alone amounted to Rs. 800 million in 2007. The gross premium for motor insurance was Rs. 6.2 billion and Rs. 4.1 billion for non-motor insurance.

The overall market share of the company stands at 38 percent whilst the market share in Motor Insurance is 43 percent as at December 2007, the company said.

Total assets amount to almost Rs. 30 billion, an increase of 17.6 percent from 2006 and Ceylinco Insurance’s investments grew by 11 percent during the year to Rs. 17.6 billion.

"Both life and general insurance saw tremendous growth during the year and our strong financial position indicates that the companies stocks are a good buy," Nihal Peiris, Director Finance, Ceylinco Insurance Company Limited said.

"Our total issued share capital amounts to Rs. 200 million. Net assets per share amounted to Rs. 224, the EPS grew by 26 percent to Rs. 51, dividend per share was Rs. 3 and the return on share holders’ funds is 23 percent," he said adding that these figures reveal the sound asset base of the company and its sound financial position.

"We are the Fourth Most Valuable Brand in Sri Lanka and our brand is worth Rs 6.5 billion and Brand Valuation UK have given us a AA (-) rating.

Peiris said that Ceylinco’s strong performance for 2007 was attributed to innovative products and services introduced during the year.

Ceylinco Insurance has an island-wide network of over 350 branches and 3,500 staff supported by a 1,000 strong dedicated marketing team and around 6,500 insurance agents.

Ceylinco Insurance has expanded into countries such Bangladesh, Baharain, Kuwait, Maldives, Mauritious, Nepal, Oman, Qatar and the UAE with insurance solutions through joint-ventures with leading insurance companies in those countries.

"We will introduce new products and services during the year and our aim will to be to provide our customers a very speedy, faster and quality service," he said. - DD