Doha Insurance Group Q.P.S.C. (DOHI) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Hello, everyone, and welcome to Doha Insurance Conference Call. Please note that this call is being recorded. I'd now like to hand over to our moderator for today, Roy Thomas, you may now begin.

Thanks, Elie. Hello, everyone. This is Roy Thomas from QNB Financial Services. I want to welcome everyone to Doha Insurance Group's Fourth Quarter and Year-end 2024 Financial Results Conference Call. On this call from Doha Insurance Group, we have Osama Rayyan, the Chief Investment Officer; and Ghaith Jardaneh, the Chief Financial Officer. We will conduct this conference call with management first reviewing the company's results followed by Q&A. I will turn the call now over to Ghaith. Go ahead, Ghaith.

Hi. Good afternoon, everybody. Doha Insurance has had a very good year for 2024. Both the top line and bottom line have reached record numbers for the group. We were able to penetrate the QAR 2 billion milestone of premiums during the year. We were able to book almost QAR 2.08 billion in premiums. Our insurance service -- our insurance revenue reached QAR 1.6 billion for 2024 compared to only QAR 1.4 billion for the previous year. The company's premiums have become more skewed towards the fire and general accident lines, along with energy and engineering. And this came at the expense of dropping motor and reducing life and medical insurance lines of business. The company was able to maintain a loss ratio in line with the one achieved in previous years and the loss ratio that's considered favorable for the industry. It's reached 54.3% compared to 53.9% in the previous year. Commission expenses increased from QAR 53.8 million to QAR 54.6 million. However, as a percentage of total gross written premiums, it has reduced from 3.5% to 2.6%. And the company was able to generate technical results of QAR 128.6 million for the year compared to QAR 103 million last year. The net underwriting results margin, profit margin, reached 8.1% compared to 7.5% from the previous year. This was mainly driven by holding the loss ratio at the same level and the reduced net commission cost. The company's operating expenses increased from QAR 123 million in 2023 to QAR 140 million in 2024. However, as a percentage of gross written premiums, they reduced from 9% to 8.9%. The company was able to achieve QAR 80 million in investment income during 2024 compared to only QAR 62 million in 2023. The rate of return on the investment assets reached 5.5% in 2024 compared to 4.3% in 2023. The combined ratio of the group decreased from 84% in 2023 to 82% in 2024. Net income achieved by the company reached QAR 190.4 million in 2024 compared to QAR 150.8 million in 2023. The net profit margin reached 12% compared to only 11% in 2023. The return on equity achieved during the year reached 15.2% compared to 12.8% in the previous year. Total assets at the company have reached QAR 3.2 billion at the end of 2024. The growth in assets is mainly due to the increased insurance activity, which reflects a higher share -- a higher reinsurer share of technical reserves. This is proportionate to the increase also witnessed in liabilities due to the same reason: as the insurance activities have grown, so has the technical provisions for those, specifically the UPR, and both went hand in hand. The equity at the company reached QAR 1.295 billion as of end of the year. The growth is mainly driven by the increased profitability, less any dividends and less any change, cumulative change, in fair value. The solvency and the liquidity position of the company continues to be very strong. It has QAR 1.4 billion in investment assets relative to a net technical provisions of QAR 400 million. So it's almost 350% investments held with the company to cover all its insurance-related obligations on a net level. The accounts receivable at the company have increased from QAR 320 million in 2023 to QAR 388 million in 2024. However, this increase is still considered reasonable considering the huge increase in gross written premiums. Furthermore, the days to receivable ratio has reduced from 76 days to 68 days, which is a very strong and favorable ratio. And the solvency ratio continues to be quite strong. It has reached 268% as of the end of 2024. The Board of Directors of Doha Insurance Group has recommended the distribution of 17.5% of capital for the results of 2024. This would constitute a yield of 6.8% based on a market value for DIG's share of QAR 2.57. And this proposed dividend would translate to a dividend payout ratio of 46%, with 54% retained at the company for future expansion. I would like to turn it back to you now for any questions.

[Operator Instructions] Since we don't have any questions, I'd now like to hand back over to Roy Thomas for final remarks.