Adamjee Insurance Company Limited (KSE: AICL) is the second largest player in Pakistan's non-life insurance sector and one of the six insurers that make the KSE-100 list. In terms of premium revenue and profits, only EFU General surpasses AICL. The top three players in the non-life space - EFU General, Adamjee and Jubilee General accounted for 57 percent of the (non-life) sector's total gross premiums in 1H15.

AICL, which accounts for 18 percent of non-life premiums (1H15), was incorporated as a public limited company in 1960. The firm has presence in Pakistan as well as UAE. Its key operating segments include Fire and Property damage, Marine, Aviation and Transport, Motor, and Accident and Health - the latter two being its favourites. Pakistan hasn't been an ideal market for insurers, scarred by alarmingly low insurance penetration rates. The non-life sector in particular has a close link to the economic growth, which hasn't been particularly eye-catching lately. However, the emergence of new distribution channels in the past couple of years has helped to add steam to the sector.

Recent Performance

In the past two years, Adamjee's financial performance began to show promise after stagnation of premiums in CY10 and CY11 and a sizeable decline in CY12. In the recently concluded CY15, Adamjee reported a stellar 23 percent increase in net premium revenue to Rs 7.7 billion. In comparison, the overall non-life sector has lately been growing at an average annual pace of around seven percent.

The general insurer produced commendable results in both Pakistan and UAE in 2015. The growth of business in the home (and larger) market, however, was outpaced by that in the Middle Eastern country. With premiums rallying 46 percent and a loss turning into profits in the latter in UAE operations, offshore success was a major part of Adamjee's upbeat performance last year. In Pakistan, the company's premiums rose 16 percent to Rs 5.5 billion and profits climbed 33 percent to Rs 2.7 billion.