Saudi Enaya's performance is improving, we aim to grow to achieve sustainability, says CEO

Enaya's performance is improving after last year’s management restructuring of the company, indicating that the total premiums subscribed have increased year over year and this reflects the internal changes in the company, CEO Daniel Whitehead said in an exclusive interview with "Argaam".

"We have confidence in the company's financial position because we have improved transparency and increased a lot of different reserves to cover any potential liabilities," he said, adding that management has done its best to restructure the company's business since last year in 2019 and is seeking to reduce costs as much as possible.

Whitehead explained that the company had been suspended in 2018 due to poor actuarial oversight and internal claims lags that led to a reduction in capital, after which the company increased capital in order to return to work and be lifted from SAMA suspension, which was completed in January 2019.

He explained that governance has been greatly improved and the company is focused to achieve a decent margin in line with its expectations in all business and it needs at this stage to achieve growth in order to reach sustainability, by increasing the total premiums subscribed while maintaining healthy loss ratios.

On the impact of the COVID-19, Whitehead noted that sales in Q2 have been challenging, while noting that the health insurance sector will be less affected than other sectors due to the pandemic.

Rami Almadhoun, Enaya's new CFO, pointed out that the company has been implementing its new vision but it will take time to see the impact.

According to the data available in "Argaam", Saudi Enaya Cooperative Insurance Co. narrowed net loss before Zakat by 42% year-on-year (YoY) to SAR 10.3 million for Q1 2020, compared to SAR 17.6 million in the same period last year.