QIC Group reports net profits of QAR 735 million for the year 2024

QIC Group reports 19% increase in net profits for the year 2024

Doha, 5 February 2025 - Qatar Insurance Company (“QIC Group”, “QIC”), the leading insurer in Qatar and the Middle East North Africa (MENA) region, has reported net profits of QAR 735 million for the year 2024, a rise of 19% from QAR 615 million in the previous year. Following a meeting of the Board of Directors, which was presided over by Sheikh Hamad bin Faisal bin Thani Jasim Al Thani, Chairman of QIC Group, the board approved the financial results.

Commenting on QIC’s financial performance, Sheikh Hamad bin Faisal Al Thani, Chairman of QIC Group, stated: “The year 2024 marked the landmark 60th anniversary for QIC, and the Group is poised to enter its seventh decade in robust health. Having demonstrated its resilience, QIC has consolidated and further built upon this progress over the past twelve months with excellent results which underlines the success of the Group’s commitment to its longer-term strategy: focusing on growth in profitable national and regional markets, while reducing exposure to international volatility by exiting loss making businesses. QIC continues to maintain its dominant position in the Middle East and North Africa region, as the largest insurance group, in terms of both total assets and total equity.”

Sheikh Hamad bin Faisal Al Thani added: “With focus on bottom line driven growth, over the past years QIC had been able to optimize and stabilise its underwriting portfolio with a balanced and well diversified lines of business across the regional and international markets”.

Mr. Salem Khalaf Al Mannai, Group Chief Executive Officer stated, “The company has now delivered consistent and stable bottom-line driven growth for the past several quarters, supplemented by a focus on process efficiencies and automation which has bolstered its already outstanding operational efficiency.”

Mr. Al Mannai added: “The key drivers for QIC’s performance in 2024, was its healthy bottom line driven growth both from our regional and international markets.

Domestic and Regional Gross Written Premiums increased to QAR 4.8 billion in 2024, up 39% year-on-year – and now account for more than half (52%), of the Group’s total Premiums, compared to less than 20% in 2021. Outside Qatar, the Group recorded impressive double-digit growth in its burgeoning operations in the UAE and Oman and expects the wider regional markets to present significant opportunities for further rapid growth in 2025 and beyond.

In terms of activities outside the Middle East, QIC’s  international operations have been delivering consistent and healthy underwriting results over past several quarters. As of the close of 2024, majority of QIC’s international business is being written through its subsidiary Antares Syndicate, the independent Managing Agent operating at Lloyd’s in London.

Mr. Al Mannai further added: “In line with the enhanced underwriting strategy, QIC’s personal lines and health segment of non-volatile business has expanded significantly in terms of its percentage contribution to Gross Written Premiums. The Energy and Marine & Aviation businesses have also grown, while a stable proportion of premiums continue to be derived through the traditional property and casualty sectors.

During the year we have successfully completed the strategic restructuring of our international business by exiting from all loss-making and low margin businesses. This key restructuring now positions QIC Group, for greater stability and profitability, with controlled exposure as a reinsurer, to UK Motor, while successfully exiting from earlier exposure to direct UK motor.

The company is especially proud to have won some of the industry’s most respected accolades, including recognition for QIC’s exceptional innovation when it comes to embedding technology into our services. We continue to push boundaries at the forefront of our industry – including in our best-in-class digital and mobile offerings, leading the conversation about the impact of artificial intelligence on the future of insurance, and promoting financial literacy.”

Financial overview

An increasingly sanguine global macroeconomic environment in 2024 was characterised by inflation falling to almost moderate levels, leading to long-anticipated interest rate cuts by the world’s major central banks. The year saw resilient global GDP growth of around 3.2%, which is expected to remain steady over the next 12-24 months, according to projections by the IMF.  There were also signs of the global insurance market beginning to soften in some lines, particularly in the latter part of the year.

However, hard reinsurance pricing persisted – especially in the MENA region – due to high claims from recent catastrophic events. In April 2024, severe flooding in the UAE resulted in multi-billion dollar insured motor and property losses, that were largely absorbed by the international reinsurance industry. The country’s heaviest recorded rainfall in 75 years underlines the growth of climate-related risks facing global insurers. Internationally, the collapse of the Baltimore bridge in March was expected to be one of the largest single marine insurance losses in history, while models forecast insured losses of tens of billions of dollars after back-to-back hurricanes Helene and Milton struck the US in September and October.

MENA focused strategy drives profitability and growth

Over recent years, QIC has strategically focused on increasing the proportion of the Group’s premiums generated in Qatar and the MENA region, momentum for which accelerated in 2024. Domestic and Regional Gross Written Premiums climbed to QAR 4.8 billion over the full year, up 39% compared to 2023. These now account for a majority of the Group’s total premiums, having jumped from less than 20% of total premiums three years ago. QIC’s businesses in the UAE and Oman witnessed substantial double-digit growth over the course of the year – and wider regional markets are expected to present significant opportunities for further rapid growth in 2025 and beyond.

In terms of activities outside the Middle East, QIC’s international operations have been delivering consistent and healthy underwriting results over the past several quarters. By the close of 2024, the Group had also exited from all loss making, low margin, high volatile and high severity international business – successfully executing an objective it has worked towards over recent years, given the uncertainty of risks posed by exposure to global markets. As of the year end, the majority of QIC’s international business is being written through its subsidiary Antares, and all of the company’s live international operations are now profitable.

With a focus on bottom-line-driven growth, over recent years QIC has been able to optimize and stabilize its underwriting portfolio with balanced and well diversified lines of business across regional and international markets. In the MENA region, growth has been driven by personal lines of insurance - which tend to be short tail in nature and less vulnerable to long term uncertainty.

Overall, QIC’s Gross Written Premiums for the year stood at QAR 9.1 billion. Over the course of the year, the Group has demonstrated healthy, stable, and improving combined ratios, in both its domestic and international operations. The Group posted Insurance Service Results of QAR 514 million in FY 2024, compared to QAR 300 million in FY2023, representing an increase of 71%.

Investment performance

In a macroeconomic climate that appears to be improving, with inflation trending downwards, but nevertheless faces challenges amid high geopolitical risk and elevated fixed income yields, QIC continue to deliver strong set of investment results. The Group reported investment income of QAR 973 million for FY 2024 with an investment yield of 5.3%. The investment portfolio’s composition has remained stable and consistent with the previous year, focusing both on sector balance and security of investments.

Overall, the Group’s net profit stood at QAR 735 million, compared to QAR 615 million in the same period last year. The parent’s share of net profit was QAR 725 million, compared to QAR 601 million in 2023.The Board of Directors proposed a cash dividend distribution of 10% for the year ended 2024.

2024 Highlights

Over the course of 2024, QIC achieved key milestones in its endeavor towards establishing the region’s first insurance-powered digital ecosystem. The company’s award-winning distribution channels in Qatar and other GCC markets – including QIC App, its mobile application, and qic.online, its web portal – were augmented with new innovative features centered around personalization, speed, and ease of use. Meanwhile, customer use of digital channels to fulfil their insurance needs rose to record highs, accompanied by rising digital sales across personal lines.

Multiple Awards and Industry Recognition

As in previous years, the company’s efforts were recognized at the industry’s most prestigious awards events in 2024. Prominently among these:

February: QIC named “Insurer of The Year in Qatar” at The MENA IR Awards 2024, the third consecutive year in which it has won this accolade.

April: QIC crowned “Best Travel Insurance Company” in The Middle East at the Global Banking & Finance Review Awards 2024, for the second consecutive year.

June: QIC received three titles at the Global Brands Magazine Awards 2024: “Best Digital Insurance Brand in Qatar”, “Best Insurance Website in Qatar”, and “Best Car Insurance Mobile App in Qatar.”

July: QIC awarded “Mobile App of The Year in Qatar”  at the Insurance Asia Awards 2024

October: QIC named “General Insurance Company of The Year 2024” in Qatar by The Asset Triple A Private Capital Awards.

Promoting Insurance Literacy

As QIC continues to expand its services, the company recognizes the importance of promoting a responsible insurance culture in Qatar and beyond. To this end, it invested in various insurance literacy initiatives through 2024. Notably, it launched the QIC Blog, the first platform of its kind in Qatar. Offering regularly updated content in both English and Arabic, the blog covers a wide spectrum of subjects, from posts on motor insurance and licensing to tips about travel and healthcare. The aim is to help community members better understand their insurance needs, and therefore to empower them to make more informed decisions when choosing insurance products – encouraging financial prudence and peace of mind.

Younger generations in particular stand to benefit from financial education initiatives. In March 2024, QIC opened its ‘edutainment’ establishment at the KidzMondo theme park in Doha. Helping young people bolster their self-confidence in financial matters, the emphasis was on creating a fun environment where children could practice what they had learned through interactive experiences.

Sustainability and ESG

As the first insurer in the Middle East to have signed the United Nations Environment Programme-Finance Initiative’s ‘Principles for Sustainable Insurance’ (UNEP-FI PSI), QIC is committed to integrating industry-leading ESG standards across its business.  The Group currently holds one of the highest ESG ratings in the insurance sector in the MENA region and is compliant with several global reporting standards.

Aiming to align the company’s sustainability and commercial goals, QIC’s areas of focus have included incorporating climate risks into exposure and loss assessment models, integrating ESG into investment decision-making, and establishing a performance-driven governance culture based on transparency. These efforts are being overseen by a Sustainability Committee to channel group-wide initiatives towards defined targets. Domestically, QIC has set out a long-term ESG strategy to support Qatar’s ESG commitments, including to cut the country’s greenhouse gas emissions by 25 percent by 2030.

QIC convenes AI leaders at the Region’s Premier Insurance event

In May 2024, QIC held the third edition of its annual MENA Insurtech Summitt, under the theme: ‘AI Impact on the Insurance Value Chain’. Attracting 1,500 participants, the three-day summit brought together entrepreneurs, regulators and technology partners from across the region to explore the ways in which artificial intelligence is poised to transform the industry and how customers interact with insurance at every stage. QIC was also an active participant at Web Summit Qatar 2024, the world’s largest tech conference, with a dedicated QIC Digital Hub booth displaying the company’s latest offerings.

QIC Group Corporate Social Responsibility Initiatives: Advancing Sports, Health, Environmental Sustainability and National Development

QIC Group’s CSR activities in 2024 have made a meaningful impact across sports, health, the environment, and national capacity building. In sports, QIC sponsored key events like the Katara International Arabian Horse Festival, the Commercial Bank Masters, the Ooredoo Marathon, and the Samla Race, fostering athletic excellence and promoting a healthy, active lifestyle. The Group also supported cultural heritage through its sponsorship of S’hail 2024, a premier falconry exhibition. On the health front, QIC emphasized awareness by promoting early breast cancer detection and organizing an annual blood donation campaign in collaboration with Hamad Medical Corporation. Environmental sustainability took centre stage with QIC’s collaboration with the Ministry of Environment and Climate Change to combat desertification and protect Qatar’s biodiversity. Furthermore, QIC supported national capacity development through initiatives such as the Kawader Malia Program, which enhances the skills of young Qatari professionals, and its summer internship program, providing hands-on industry experience for students. Additionally, QIC contributed to Qatar’s Vision 2030 by sponsoring events like the Qatar Energy Industry Seminar and entering partnerships with national corporations focusing on the digital economy.