Qatar Insurance Company (QIC), the country’s dominant risk cover provider, is strengthening its operations in the European region in a big way as part of its global expansion strategy.
In this regard, the insurer has established a fully-owned Malta-based EU subsidiary QIC Europe Limited (QEL), through which it aims to enhance its property and casualty and specialty insurance cover in the European Union and other non-EU European jurisdictions.
QEL will become a key strategic platform for the group to underwrite European Economic Area (EEA) risks by leveraging the group’s other platforms as Qatar Re and Antares. QEL will leverage QIC’s strong relationships with international insurance intermediaries to underwrite high quality business in the EEA.
“Following the acquisition of Antares in mid-2014, the establishment of QEL represents another significant milestone in the QIC’s international growth strategy,” QIC Group president and CEO Khalifa al-Subaey said.
Standard and Poor’s, a leading global ratings agency, has assigned an “A” (stable) rating to QEL based on the parental guarantee provided by QIC. Al-Subaey said credit rating will further enhance QEL’s ability to gain access to high quality business in the EEA.
In its initial phase, QEL will underwrite non-Malta, EEA-situated general insurance risks, while QIC International will continue to write general insurance risks in Malta through its long-standing relationship with a leading Maltese insurance agency.
In addition to its focus on the critical EEA market, in the medium term, QEL will seek to achieve further profitable growth by pursuing high quality opportunities in the Maghreb region, according to Ali al-Fadala, senior deputy group president of QIC Group.
“QIC with its exceptional financial position, strong competitive profile, and its healthy reputation in the insurance and reinsurance industry, is uniquely positioned to support QEL’s objective of becoming a leading Malta-based European insurer,” QIC chief financial officer Sunil Talwar said.