Mutual Benefits Assurance reported on Friday a 45 per cent increase in net profit for the 2025 financial year, receiving a major boost from its insurance business.
Shares in the insurer had gone up by 9.5 per cent on Lagos’ Customs Street as of 10:32 West Africa Time, following the news.
Insurance service result leapt 718.9 per cent to N8.8 billion, according to its audited financials, easing the blow that a slide in net investment income would have had dealt on earnings.
The net investment income of the underwriter dropped by 11.1 per cent in the period under review after incurring N659.7 million in foreign exchange loss in contrast to a gain of N5.3 billion posted a year earlier.
Insurance revenue climbed by 19.6 per cent to N80 billion, with Nigeria contributing more than three-fourths of that sum, while Niger and Liberia – other markets where the company operates – accounted for the rest.
The results also showed that motor insurance remains the biggest contributor to insurance revenue pool of the insurer, whose underwriting operations span oil & gas, aviation, agriculture, marine and life among others. Revenue from motor insurance stood N26.2 billion, up from N17.9 billion a year earlier.
Apart from assurance business, the company has operations in real estate, microfinance as well as oil & gas exploration and production.
One of the key highlights of the reasonably strong performance was the N9.2 billion recorded as insurance service result before reinsurance contracts held, which compares to a negative position of N1.2 billion reported in 2024, when soaring insurance service costs wiped out insurance revenue.
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Mutual Benefits Assurance has proposed a dividend per share of N0.04 for the review period, translating into a potential payout of N802.5 million, two times what it paid shareholders for 2024.
Strengthening profit, the company cut back other employee benefit expenses by 7.8 per cent and other operating expenses by 40.5 per cent.
Profit before income tax rose by 47.6 per cent to N17.4 billion, while profit after tax advanced to N16.4 billion.
Total assets expanded by 19.8 per cent to N176.2 billion, driven by an increase in financial assets at amortised cost.
