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Kuwait Insurance Report Q4 2010
Business Monitor International, Oct 2010, Pages: 75
The Kuwait Insurance Report provides industry professionals and strategists, corporate analysts, insurance associations, government departments and regulatory bodies with independent forecasts and competitive intelligence on Kuwait's insurance industry.
Kuwait’s insurance sector is one in which much needs to change if the country is to shake its status as something of a backwater. As BMI’s discussion on the economic and political outlook makes clear, progress towards economic reform and liberalisation continues at a slow pace, at a time when inwards investment has been constrained by a challenging political environment. This is evidently not a market in which foreign insurers have felt the need for a lowering of barriers to entry.
Nor is it clear that there would be much opportunity for them if they did. The larger listed Kuwaiti insurance companies have published their results for the nine months to the end of 2009. We continue to look for overall growth in premiums last year of around 5%. Virtually all of the absolute growth in premiums was accounted for by market leader Gulf Insurance. Al Ahleia Insurance reported a significant decline in both gross and net premiums and total assets. As a result of our methodology – which assumes a steady increase in non-life penetration (i.e. premiums as a percentage of GDP), we are currently looking for accelerating in growth from 2010. However, we recognise that we may yet have to lower our forecasts. Other than those mentioned, the main operators in Kuwait are, similarly, locally owned and listed organisations that are small by anything other than local standards. Examples include Kuwait Insurance, Kuwait Re, Warba Insurance, Wethaq Takaful and First Takaful.
As is the case in several other Middle Eastern countries, the level of development of the life segment is embryonic. This may be because the government makes extensive social security benefits available to its citizens and it is not clear what will be a catalyst for this to change.
In this report, we also continue to provide a breakdown of the insurance sector by line – from the point of view of the regulator or trade association. In Kuwait, comprehensive motor insurance (presumably compulsory motor third party liability) was the largest line in the non-life segment, accounting for just under half of gross written premiums. Other major lines included life and health, marine aviation and transport, and property and fire insurance.
At the time of writing in September 2010, we have been able to ensure that the report includes actual data for 2009. We have generally been able to use data that was published during 2010 to adjust our forecasts for the year as a whole. Total premiums last year amounted to KWD194mn. This included non-life premiums of KWD194mn and life premiums of KWD44mn. In 2014, the corresponding figures should be KWD318mn, 255mn and KWD64mn respectively. In terms of the growth drivers that underpin our forecasts, we are looking for non-life penetration to rise from 0.46% of GDP in 2009 to 0.52% in 2014. We are looking for life density to grow from US$47 per capita to US$67. BMI’s Insurance Business Environment Rating for Kuwait is 44.3
Issues To Watch
Islamic Finance
In spite of the general underdevelopment of its insurance sector, Kuwait stands out for the significance – in a local context – of its takaful operators. In the event that official resources are mobilised to promote Islamic finance, this sub-segment could grow rapidly.
Expansion Abroad
The growth prospects of the Kuwaiti insurers are constrained by the small actual (and potential) absolute size of the market. In many cases, it is difficult for them to increase their market shares within Kuwait. There is no sign of a catalyst for development of the life segment. The obvious solution is to underwrite risks outside Kuwait – and/or to expand by way of acquisition.
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