Qatar General Insurance & Reinsurance Company Q.P.S.C. (QGRI) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Good day, everyone. Welcome to the Qatar General Insurance & Reinsurance Company Conference Call. Please note that this call is being recorded. I'd now like to hand over to our moderator for today, Roy Thomas. Please go ahead.

Thanks, Ali. Hello, everyone. This is Roy Thomas from QNB Financial Services. I want to welcome everyone to Qatar General Insurance & Reinsurance Company's first quarter 2024 financial results conference call. On this call from Qatar General Insurance & Reinsurance Company, we have Khalid Alaswad, the Group Chief Financial Officer; and Zaid Anani, the Treasury and Bank's Relationship Manager. We will conduct this conference call with management first to bring the company's results followed by Q&A. I will turn the call now over to Zaid Anani. Go ahead, Zaid.

Thank you, Roy. Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to the earnings conference call of Qatar General Insurance & Reinsurance Company, which will be referred to by QGIRCO, or the company -- going further for the first quarter of the financial year 2024. I am Zaid Anani, QGIRCO's Investor Relations Officer. It is worth starting our investors call with the disclaimer. Thereafter, we will provide you with a summary of our operational and financial results. I will now read out the disclaimer to this conference call. This call may contain, constitute or imply information or forward-looking statements regarding the operational or financial performance and future of QGIRCO or any of its subsidiary. Such statements are based on the current expectations and assumptions of QGIRCO's management to their best knowledge and diligent assessment. As such, QGIRCO, its Directors and its officers shall not be liable for any cause or losses resulted from using forward-looking statements throughout this call. I am delighted to give the floor to my colleague, Mr. Greggy Bueno, who will discuss the company's financial results and the operational update.

Thank you, Zaid. Our insurance revenue reached QAR 204 million in Q1 2024 compared to QAR 190.4 million for the same period last year, showing an increase of 7%. The insurance service results reached QAR 26.9 million in Q1 2024 compared to QAR 21.8 million in Q1 2023, an increase of QAR 5.2 million or 24%. The investment result of QAR 29.2 million for the period have slightly increased compared to QAR 28.1 million for the same period last year, or an increase of 4%. QGIRCO continues to be in good financial issuance with total shareholders' equity of QAR 3.3 billion as of March 31, 2024. My colleague, Mr. Omar Alsabbah will discuss the final results in more detail before handing over to colleague, Mr. Zaid Anani, to take you through the outlook.

Thank you, Greggy. I'll provide high-level results before we go -- get into the details. Qatar General Insurance & Reinsurance total gross written premium for the first quarter of 2022 -- 2024 stands at QAR 282.9 million compared to QAR 264.1 million for the last -- for the same period last year, representing an increase of 7%. The management's continuous efforts to enhance the group's insurance profitability has led to an improved insurance services of QAR 5.2 million in comparison to Q1 last year. The funds costs have reduced from QAR 21.8 million in Q1 '23 to QAR 19.8 million in Q1 '24, representing a decrease of 9%. The net profit for the current year was QAR 17.5 million compared with QAR 44.3 million for the same period last year. This decrease in net profit is mainly because of the timing difference and recording of the shared profits of associates and dividends from certain investments when compared to the first quarter of last year. The above resulted in the shareholders' net profit of QAR 15 million during the year and earnings per share of QAR 0.021. Now I'm handing over to Mr. Zaid Anani to take you through the outlook.

Thank you, Omar. The general outlook of Qatar's economy is expected to continue normalizing in the near term after achievement of boost in 2022 from hosting the World Cup. The IMF forecast a GDP growth rate of 1.9% for Qatar in 2024 and states that the country has shown resilience to recent global shocks with a favorable economic outlook. Let's discuss QGIRCO's Insurance business first. QGIRCO's Insurance business continues to find strong footing throughout the country's infrastructure growth, digital transformation, oil and gas projects and, most importantly, the rollout of mandatory health insurance plans for expatriates and their families as well as visitors. Secondly, regarding QGIRCO's investment in Real Estate business, it is expected that income from Real Estate business to improve during the first half of 2024, as the company is now in the final stages of signing a rental contract for Alaama Tower. With regards to investment outlook, the Qatar Stock Exchange market is expected to perform well this year after lagging its peers, driven by strong performance of listed companies. Moreover, the anticipated ending of the monetary tightening policy should have a positive impact on the company's portfolio, which is predominantly compromise (sic) [ comprised ] of local shares. Additionally, the company's direct equity investment in Algeria continues to deliver solid performance as expected. Finally, highlighting the effect of QGIRCO's income statement and balance sheet. On the income statement level, financing costs are expected to remain stable with a reasonable probability of decreasing this year due to the anticipated end of quantitative tightening cycle as well as the company's plans to deleverage. Additionally, the company is expecting a significant boost in rental income in 2024 from Alaama Tower. On a balance sheet level, the company will also be focusing on reducing real estate exposure, thereby achieving better stratification for its investment portfolio. With this [indiscernible], it is worth to note that the outlook has been fully presented, and I would like to note that this call, the fact sheet will be available on the Investment Relations section of our website, www.qgirco.com, by the end of tomorrow. Kindly feel free to reach out at -- through our contacts in the Investor Relations section. Ladies and gentlemen, on behalf of the whole of QGIRCO team, thank you very much. We wish you a great day ahead. If you have any questions, please go ahead.