Treasury secretary Henry Rotich has sought to ensure continuity in the
ownership of the insurance companies by making it mandatory that the
preference shares are irredeemable. PHOTO | FILE
By GEORGE NGIGI, gngigi@ke.nationmedia.com
In Summary
The capital composition of insurance companies will
be expanded, making it easier for insurers to raise new cash to enable
them to comply with the recently introduced higher financing
requirements.
Treasury secretary Henry Rotich has proposed to include
preference shares, subordinated loans, share premiums and reserves in
the calculation of an insurer’s capital position in the published
Insurance Act amendment bill.
Preference shares come with a stated dividend rate
that makes them more attractive to incoming investors as opposed to
common stock (ordinary shares) that receives a dividend only when it is
declared.
Preference shares are entitled to other benefits such as ranking ahead of ordinary shares during liquidation.
More than 10 of the industry’s 44 licensed insurers
are expected to go to the market for cash in order to comply with new
minimum capital requirements slated to be operational in the next 24
months.
Currently, the Act only recognises ordinary share
capital limiting the sourcing options of the insurers. Both existing and
new insurance companies can use preference shares to raise cash.
“The capital of the insurer may consist of, in the
case of a new company, ordinary shares, each of which has a single face
value with voting rights and shall be irredeemable and non-cumulative
preference shares,” reads the proposed amendment.
For companies that are already in operation,
reserves that have been accumulated over time will also be counted as
capital making it unnecessary for a company to go through the
bureaucracy of converting them into shares.
“In the case of existing companies... subordinated
loans as may be approved by the authority, share premiums, reserves and
any other forms of capital as may be determined by the authority,” add
the new proposed amendment.
Subordinated loans rank below other loans when it
comes to claims on assets. “This opens a window for insurance companies
to go to the capital markets to raise money,” said insurance expert
Isaac Ng’aru of Ngaru and Associates.
Corporate bonds previously issued by insurance
companies had not been factored in their capital. Some of the insurers
that have issued bonds include Britam and CIC that raised Sh6 billion and Sh5 billion in 2014.
Banks have a wide array of capital sources allowing
them to absorb more business. The capital sources are ranked with
shareholders cash dubbed core capital while debt and other sources is
classified as tier two capital.
The CS has sought to ensure continuity in the
ownership of the insurance companies by making it mandatory that the
preference shares are irredeemable.
Classifying them as non-cumulative implies
dividends will only be paid to the preference shareholders only in the
year the company has announced a sharing of profits protecting the
financial position of the insurer from being drained by historical
obligations to such investors
Policyholders will be paid first ahead of suppliers
of capital in case an insurance company is liquidated, reads part of the
amendment.
Under the new rules taking effect at the end of June 2018,
minimum capital will be based on three parameters that include capital
covering the risk carried by an insurer relative to size, the type of
business booked and a minimum capital set for each business class.
For general insurance the minimum capital will be Sh600 million while life insurers will hold a minimum of Sh400 million.
At the moment, life insurers must maintain a
paid-up capital of at least Sh150 million while those underwriting
general business must have a minimum paid-up capital of Sh300 million.
No comments :
Post a Comment