WAICA Re Achieves 90% Subscription Success on Capitalisation Offer
Ebere Nwoji
The West African Reinsurance Corporation Plc, (WAICA Re), said it has concluded the first phase of its three-phase capitalisation project with a subscription success level of 90 per cent.
WAICA Re, also said in the year 2016, it successfully achieved its strategic objective of growing its business beyond the Anglophone West Africa region, pointing out that it attained a notable growth level of 250 percent in Francophone Africa region in 2016 while maintaining 80 percent growth in other overseas countries within the period
The company’s chairman, Kofi Duffor, who disclosed this at the annual general meeting of the company held in Accra, Ghana, said the capitalisation process was started by the company in 2016, through a Rights Issue, which involved the issue of 14,472,816 ordinary shares at $1.52 per share at a ratio of 0.5669 new share for every one existing share held.
He said that the offer was to raise additional share capital of $21,998,680 to support the Corporation’s strategic drive and business expansion.
“At the end of the offer, 13,031,190 shares were subscribed valued at $19,807,408.80, representing a success rate of 90 per cent”, said Duffor.
According to him, the company, established by the West African Insurance Companies Association (WAICA), commenced operations with modest capital pooled from member companies, and the public in July 2011, adding that its capital base was later raised to $25 million in December 2013.
Duffor, said despite the exchange rate volatility, which affected the dollar denominated figures of premiums generated, WAICA Re, recorded 47 per cent growth in gross premium income from $33.5 million in 2015 to $49.2 million in 2016.
Presenting country by country growth recorded by the company during the period, Duffor said: “In the WAICA Re member countries, Sierra Leone recorded the highest level of growth of 153 per cent, followed by Liberia 60 per cent, then Gambia 26 per cent, Ghana 23 per cent and Nigeria eight per cent. This is reflective of our continuous effort to grow the business in our home markets.”