Qatar’s leading life and medical insurer earned a Q1 net profit of QR25.1mn while gross written premium for first quarter was QR299.8mn; QLM declared an interim dividend of QR0.04 per share

Qatar’s leading life and medical insurer, QLM Life & Medical Insurance Company posted “strong” first quarter 2021 results, earning a net profit of QR25.1mn or QR0.07 per share, compared with QR15mn, or QR0.04 per share for first quarter 2020.

This represents a “robust” growth of 67%, QLM announced on Monday.

QLM chairman Sheikh Saoud bin Khalid bin Hamad al-Thani said, “Today, Qatar, the MENA region and the rest of the world are continuing to face the Covid-19 health crisis, and QLM is aware of the many challenges that our clients, members, and communities are tackling. QLM remains fully prepared to continue to meet the needs of our customers, members and partners during these challenging times.

“Our Q1, 2021 results are the first quarterly results since our highly successful listing on the Qatar Stock Exchange in January 2021. We are proud to deliver an outstanding performance, despite ongoing economic headwinds. We remain confident to meet the expectations of our valued shareholders.”

Gross written premium for first quarter 2021 was QR299.8mn, compared with QR396.1mn for first quarter 2020. The drop in gross written was due to multiple factors, including, delayed renewals by some existing clients, reductions in benefits to members on a few policies and a drop in member counts as a result of job layoffs.

Net investment income for first quarter 2021 was QR9.6mn, compared with QR1.1mn for first quarter 2020. The turnaround in net investment income was a result of the ongoing recovery in regional and global capital markets.

QLM said it was “pleased” to declare an interim dividend of QR0.04 per share, which corresponds to an annualised dividend yield of 5.1% of the company’s IPO price of QR3.15 per share.

The interim dividend will be paid out of the “healthy” first quarter 2021 net profit and is subject to the regulatory approval of the Qatar Central Bank.

The final dividend for FY 2021 will be taken into consideration for the payment of the interim dividend for first quarter 2021, QLM said.