Riyadh – Mubasher: Bupa Arabia for Cooperative Insurance on Thursday reported a sharp drop in profits for the first quarter of 2018 on the back of higher net claims and operating expenses.

Bupa logged SAR 9.348 million in profits in Q1-18, down 74.52% from SAR 36.69 million in the year-ago period.

Quarter-on-quarter, the insurance firm’s profits retreated 90.76% from SAR 101.167 million, it said in a filing to the Saudi Stock Exchange (Tadawul).

The profit drop came despite a 10.49% rise in gross written premiums (GWPs) to SAR 2.489 billion from SAR 2.253 billion in Q1-17.

Earnings per share (EPS) amounted to SAR 0.14 in Q1-18 versus SAR 0.12 in the corresponding period of 2017.

Net written premiums (NWPs) also increased 10.56% year-on-year to SAR 2.472 billion from SAR 2.236 billion, Bupa said.

The Saudi insurance firm ascribed the profit fall to higher operating expenses.

Net claims incurred rose to SAR 1.728 million in Q1-18, up 3.5% from SAR 1.669 million in the year-ago period, the data showed. This was offset by a 3.3% increase in net earned premium to SAR 61,673 in Q1-18 from the year-ago period.

Bupa’s investment income rose 5.7% in the period between January and March to SAR 43,724 from SAR 41,364K for the same period in 2017.