As BIHL Finally Sells Off Its FSG Stake
Strong contributions from Botswana Insurance Holdings Limited Group(BIHL) subsidiaries saw the company recording a very pleasing performance for the year ended December. According to the groups financial results, the strong contributions from subsidiary businesses allowed for overall pleasing performance which included an increase of 56% to P615 million on Profit attributable to equity holders, 9 percent increase to P5.76 billion(Dec 2021: P5.33 billion)on embedded value.
Further, the Group Embedded Value rose by 16.9 percent from 12 percent which was previously recorded in December 2021.Lastly the amount paid as dividends increased from P195 million to P405 million in 2022 showcasing a huge jump.
Botswana Life delivered a solid set of results showing a good recovery from 2021. While net premium income declined by 2% due to low business volumes across all income lines, recurring premium income showed resilience increasing by 1% from P1.64 billion to P1.79 billion.Further, operating profit increased by194% year-on-year to P399 million, with a major contributor of this being lower mortality and thus lower claims since the height of the COVID-19 pandemic
“We remain optimistic that the other indicators will improve over time, and we will continue to implement our digitization strategy in order to achieve additional top-line growth and margin expansions across all businesses. The significant growth of Botswana Life’s operating profit is indeed a cornerstone to the fact that there were lower mortality claims compared to 2021 when we experienced elevated COVID-19 claims which have since decreased,” said the BIHL Group CEO, Catherine Lesetedi.
The asset management business, Bifm, showed an increase of 31% year-on-year growth in its operating profit. This is owing to an improved AUM position which increased by 7% to close the year at P38.5 billion and good performance from Zambia. This is compared to the P36.1 billion which was recorded in December 2021, however the P38.5 billion clocked in 2022 is inclusive of Zambia’s P5.7 billion and Bifm Unit Trust standing at P1.8 billion.
“Bifm continues to show prevailing growing fiscal performance in unpredictable global and local operational markets. The growth in profits was driven by Bifm’s Zambian operations, which continued to benefit from the Pula/Kwacha currency movement, coupled with an overall improvement in the operating environment, as well as a once-off accounting adjustment,” explained Lesetedi.
Meanwhile BIHL Group has disposed off its shareholding from Funeral Service Group, as a result cashing on P250 million from the transaction. At the start of 2022, Botswana Life started a process of disposing of its 37.62% shareholding in FSG Limited and the transaction was concluded on the 7th of February 2023 following regulatory approval and fulfillment of all conditions precedent
