Sanlam Limited (Sanlam) and MultiChoice Group have entered into an agreement for Sanlam to acquire 60% of MultiChoice's insurance business, NMS Insurance Services (NMSIS), as well as a long-term commercial arrangement to expand insurance and related financial service offerings into MultiChoice's extensive African subscriber base.
Secondary perils can no longer be regarded as secondary concerns as they are becoming pivotal factors to consider in the global risk landscape, says a blog posted on the website of the global law firm, Norton Rose Fulbright.
S&P Global Ratings (S&P) says that it's too early to assess the full financial and ratings impact on South Africa's insurance sector of last week's extreme weather events in the South and East regions.
Capacity from local and global insurers was limited, and placement challenges continued, especially for global programmes and for risk types that were not in appetite / preferred, says Aon in its "Q1 2024 Global Insurance Market Insights Report" released last week.
South Africa's President Cyril Ramaphosa has signed into law a Bill that aims to provide universal health coverage, reported Reuters.
The operating performance of the Sanlam insurance group was resilient in 2023, supported by life underwriting performance, and strong growth in life premiums, especially in Asia driven by India (albeit dampened by weaker performance in Malaysia), according to Fitch Ratings.
The South African general insurance industry is set to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 4.8% to ZAR192.7bn ($10.4bn) in 2028 from ZAR159.5bn in 2024, in terms of gross written premiums (GWP), forecasts data and analytics company GlobalData.
South African insurer Old Mutual Limited (OML) reported a 35% surge in profit after tax attributable to equity holders of the parent to ZAR7.1bn ($380m) in 2023 compared to ZAR5.2bn in 2022.
As few as 19% of South Africans have an insurance product of any kind. The only insurance category with a relatively high take-up rate is funeral cover, with estimations of around 40% of South Africans having some form of funeral cover in place, says Mr Kobus Botha, executive head of Commercial and Operations of technology solutions provider, Ignition Financial Services.
Sanlam, Africa's biggest insurer, has reported record 2023 earnings despite a series of adverse events that impacted the global economy between 2020 and 2022, beginning with the COVID-19 pandemic.