World’s Largest Retakaful Operator Opens KL Unit
DUBAI-BASED ACR ReTakaful Holdings Ltd, the world’s largest retakaful operator, has launched a unit in Kuala Lumpur called ACR ReTakaful SEA Bhd, to service the Southeast Asian market.
“The idea is for ACR ReTakaful Holdings to tackle the Middle East and beyond, while we (the new unit) grow the Southeast Asian region,” ACR ReTakaful SEA chief executive officer Zainal Abidin M. Noor told reporters before the launch ceremony in Kuala Lumpur on Friday.
Since ACR ReTakaful SEA’s set-up six months ago, it has already written an estimated gross premium income of US$5 million (RM18.2 million).
Zainal said the amount is made up of two retakafuls for the aviation industry, one of the sectors ACR ReTakaful SEA is keen on entering.
“Islamic financial services such as takaful and retakaful are growing in demand. We have moved on from requests for smaller and more personal lines to increasing demands for large and specialised risk coverage, generally with huge concentrations of sums insured,” Zainal said.
The company will focus on non-cyclical, large and complex specialty risks, particularly in infrastructure and transportation industries such as aviation, marine, energy and engineering.
Zainal said for the medium term, the unit will focus on growing the re-takaful market not only in Malaysia, but also Brunei, Indonesia and Bangladesh.
“Special efforts will be made for Bangladesh because there are at least six syariah-compliant insurers there and the market is such that treaties are renewed in April, so we have five months to market ourselves,” Zainal said.
A long term plan is also to expand to countries such as Thailand and the Philippines.
ACR ReTakaful obtained its operating licence from Bank Negara Malaysia on July 1 2008.
ACR ReTakaful is a wholly owned subsidiary of ACR Re-Takaful Holdings, established in April 2008 as a joint venture between ACR Capital Holdings Pte Ltd, Khanazah Nasional Bhd and the Dubai Banking Group.
The Kuala Lumpur-based ACR ReTakaful SEA was awarded a financial strength rating of “A-” (excellent) on July 30 2008 by international rating agency A.M Best. It is capitalised at RM325 million.
