S&P Upgrades SALAMA’s Rating to BBB, maintains Stable outlook

Islamic Arab Insurance Company (“SALAMA”) welcomes Standard and Poor’s Global Ratings (“S&PGR”) move to upgrade the financial strength and issuer credit rating of SALAMA from ‘BBB-‘to ‘BBB’ with stable outlook.

The rating reflects SALAMA’s position as the largest Sharia-compliant insurer in the UAE with ‘AAA’ level capital adequacy.

SALAMA posted impressive revenue growth of 25% with net income of AED18 million in the first quarter of 2019. S&PGR looked into SALAMA’s efforts to improve its investment portfolio and efforts to move away from unrated speculative-grade instruments. Positive factors such as improved operating performance in last two years including in Q1-2019 and net combined ratio (loss and expense) of 97% contributed to the upgrade.

Commenting on the upgrade, SALAMA’s Managing Director, Mustafa Kheriba said, “SALAMA’s position as the UAE’s largest Takaful operator and strong Q1-2019 performance reflects our relentless efforts to further Takaful growth in the region. We thank our partners, employees and shareholders for their support to achieve this rating upgrade”.