NAIROBI-KENYA: Chartis Insurance will upgrade the Nairobi office to become its Africa headquarters as it plans to lure the untapped insurance market in the continent.
The office will become the African hub to coordinate expansion in the new African markets as the company seeks tap revenue from the expanding Africa economies.
Chartis currently has offices in Kenya, Uganda, South Africa and Egypt. The company is seeking to expand to Ghana and Tanzania in the immediate term and other markets in short term.
The two countries recently made oil and gas discoveries with stable economic and political stability outlook. Chartis President for Africa, Europe and Middle East Robert Schimek confirmed the elevation of the Nairobi office as a regional hub.
“We have done our research and want to take our African operations to another level,” Schimek in Nairobi on Wednesday evening.
He did not however disclose the value of new investments planned for Africa.
“We already have a basic plan for Africa that we shall be evaluating in Nairobi for the whole week. For sure, this is a place we shall make new investments geographically and in new products,” he added during his week-long tour of Kenya.
Although Chartis will be eyeing high value deals in the new and existing African markets, it also plans to introduce mass market products under the micro insurance model now being favored as new revenue generator.
Chartis already runs a micro insurance model in India targeting low income population and the president hinted that this could be one of the products likely to be replicated in African markets.
The general insurance vendor specializing in property and casualty insurance has a market share of 4.9 percent in Kenya according to the Association of Kenya Insurers (AKI) report for 2010, and fifth largest based on gross revenue of the same year.
In South Africa, the company had a market share of 3.3 percent in 2009, according to a survey by financial services company KPMG.
Africa expansion coincides with the rebranding of the company that will revert to its American International Group (AIG) name on October 1 this year.The global rebrand is motivated by the company’s recovery from the September 2008 bailout of 182 billion U.S dollars by the U.S. Treasury that gave the government arm controlling shareholding in the company.
Then it dropped its AIG brand in favor of Chartis.The AIG name is seen as having a higher brand value especially now that the company is recovering with a third straight profitable quarter announced earlier this month.
“Since the change of name, AIG has played defensive game and its now our time to score. Its time to go offensive,” said Schimek on the rebrand.
The company has recently received favorable ratings from agencies such as Fitch Ratings, Standard & Poor’s and A.M. Best as it seeks to buy back shares from the U.S. Treasury.In May, Fitch Ratings issued a “BBB” rating of AIG with positive outlook and a financial strength rating of “A” with stable outlook.
(Xinhua)
