News in brief

Africa Re results [lagos]—Africa re saw premium income grow last year although profits were held back by two major claims, according to Corneille Karekezi, Chief Executive Officer. He reported premium income was up to US$670m, 3.5% higher than the 2012 figures of US$647m. Mr Karekezi said two claims, Astrapak in South Africa and one from a perfume operation in Abidjan had helped lower overall profits to US$85m, from US$93m in 2012. Investment income was also down in 2013. However, he said 2012 had been an exceptional year so the 2013 results were still very good and the forecast for 2014 is also optimistic, with a 10% increase in top line figures so far. Greenfield foreign investment recovering [london]—Greenfield foreign direct investment started to recover in 2013 with a 10.94% annual growth, according to figures in The FDi Report 2014, an annual assessment of cross-border investment based on the FDi Markets database from the Financial Times. The growth in FDi in 2013 was, however, unevenly distributed across regions of the world. Latin America and the Caribbean was the best performing area, with a doubling of FDi in 2013. In the same period, Africa recorded growth of 10.76%. Africa performed well in 2013, attracting US$51.98bn in inward capital investment compared to US$46.92bn in 2012. Growth of FDi in 2013 was mainly in medium- and small-sized emerging and frontier markets, such as Mozambique. An indicator of the nascent world economic recovery is that FDi in the hotels and tourism sector increased by 36.3% in 2013 while FDi in building and construction materials increased by 88.39%.hideBroker news [dubai]—Brokerslink, an independent insurance broker network, has reorganised its previous Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) trading area by splitting it into two separate regions: Europe and Middle East & Africa (MEA). It said it will enable Brokerslink to build closer relationships with local clients and tailor its service delivery to match the different needs of each region. Youness Rhallam, CEO of Alpha Assurances, one of the largest independent insurance brokers in Morocco, has also been appointed Regional Director of MEA. Mr Rhallam will be closely supported in this key role by Tiago Mora, CEO of MDS Angola; Maely Daoud, Director of Filhet-Allard and Cyril Haddad, Regional CEO of Hadbrok Insurance Brokers. Meanwhile, Cooper Gay Swett & Crawford (CGSC), a wholesale and reinsurance broker, has announced the launch with the Dubai Financial Services Authority’s approval of Cooper Gay (Dubai) Limited, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Cooper Gay (Holdings) Limited. Based in the Dubai International Financial Centre, it represents CGSC’s first footsteps into the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, with further expansion planned for the future. Toby Esser, CGSC Group Chief Executive Officer, commented: “The insurance industry in the MENA region is undergoing significant transformation and has demonstrated impressive growth in recent years. We believe there is tremendous potential for CGSC.” Chemical potential [london]—A new report from kpmg said the economic potential for the African chemical industry is clear enough, with low costs for labour and materials, a relatively young and rapidly growing population, an expanding middle class, a rising demand for products and one of the fastest growing economies in the world. The report said Africa shared the problems of many emerging markets, such as social volatility, unreliable electric power and a weak infrastructure hampering the movement of feedstocks and products. However, it also concluded opportunities in Africa centre around three factors for the chemical industry and its investors: high growth, major oil and gas reserves, and demand in certain market sectors such as agriculture, consumer products, infrastructure development and construction. New Cote d’Ivoire director [abidjan]—Continental reinsurance has announced appointed Ibrahima Ndoye as the Regional Director for Cote d’Ivoire. Mr Ndoye is a seasoned reinsurance underwriter and has worked in Cote d’Ivoire and the surrounding region for the past 16 years. According to the African Development Bank Cote d’Ivoire’s GDP is forecast to grow at 9.8% in 2014.

News in brief

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