The country’s largest short-term insurer has attributed the 47% increase in its profits to stricter underwriting and to not chasing new policies at the expense of profits.
Santam benefited from a 7% increase in gross written premiums in the general insurance business, while gross claims paid decreased to R18.4bn compared to R19bn in 2017. "We’ve always been disciplined in our underwriting to understand the extent of risks we are covering and how to manage them. But we increased our discipline even more, sending people out for commercial risks to understand what fire mitigation clients have and if they need to be improved," said Santam CEO Lizé Lambrechts.
The property class had 11% growth in premiums, mainly because of strong corporate property insurance demand. "Our philosophy in Namibia is the same as in SA. We always want to write premiums at a level where we believe there’s a reasonable chance for a profitable margin. We don’t just write policies for the sake of it. That also affected our growth," said Nel.