Britam Group managing director Benson Wairegi (left) with board chairman
Francis Muthaura during the firm’s annual general meeting at the Safari
Park Hotel in Nairobi in June. PHOTO | SALATON NJAU
Listed
financial services firm Britam Holdings Limited is mulling over
cross-listing its shares in neighbouring countries to give investors in
the region a chance to buy into the company.
Group managing director Benson Wairegi said the company plans to list its stock in Rwanda, Uganda and Tanzania.
Britam has an operational presence in the region.
“When
the opportunity is ripe we shall crosslist as this is something within
our radar. We have been asked by regulators in these markets where we
launched operations four years ago to consider listing,” Mr Wairegi told
the Business Daily in an interview.
“We’re
working on consolidating gains in these markets within the framework of
our 2016-2020 strategy and future move across any of our markets will be
communicated to our shareholders when the time comes.”
Britam,
which is marking its 50th anniversary this year, has stepped up the
expansion plans to consolidate recently acquired businesses.
Mr
Wairegi said the company has in the pipeline real estate projects in
Kenya which will see the group build commercial, mixed and residential
developments within the next five years.
The 31-floor Britam Towers currently under construction in Upper Hill, Nairobi, is nearing completion.
The
recent requirement that all importers and shipping companies should
insure cargo destined to Kenya with Kenyan underwriters has also opened
up new opportunities for the industry.
Britam has spent
Sh3 billion on installation of a digitised platform for all operational
processes. This is aimed at tapping emerging technologies that allow
for seamless transactions on an online platform.
The
online platform has already been activated for the staff and will soon
be made available to customers allowing them to access their individual
accounts, print statements as well as conduct transactions on a realtime
basis from wherever they are.
Currently, Britam runs a
short message service for its customers making enquiring about payments
made for purchase of various products including unit trusts, insurance
premiums and education policies.
Mr Wairegi says new
industry regulations will have an impact on how insurance companies are
run, with more focus being on risk management.
Under
the risk-based regulation, insurance companies will no longer have a
uniform capital level but each now has a separate capitalisation based
on risk insured.
Life insurance companies were
previously required to have a minimum Sh300 million reserve while
general business firms had a reserve requirement of Sh150 million.
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