Insurance Broker Eyes Organic Growth

March 27 - One of South Africa's best performing insurance broking and risk advisory service groups, Glenrand MIB, said that it was weighing the possibility of organic growth, despite the current market conditions.

Glenrand said that although there was room for expansion through acquisitions, it was treading extremely carefully in the market right now and was being very selective about the type of deals that were even looked at.

"We have a number of organic growth opportunities we have seen," confirmed the Chief Executive Officer of Glenrand MIB, Andrew Chislett, "but we are very selective and conservative in our approach, particularly from a risk perspective, so sometimes we will walk away from something before we even discuss pricing."

Chislett said that Glenrand was keen to expand organically, even though market conditions were not optimal right now.

In the last half of 2008, Glenrand's broking revenue rose to over R250 million (an increase of 16.8%).

On releasing the financial statement, Glenrand said: "The group increased broking revenue 16.8% to R252 million during the period under review, which included R13.9 million attributable to the acquisition of Finrite. Investment income increased 29% to R28.4 million following improved treasury management activities."

Glenrand is not ruling out consolidation opportunities either, as conditions in the market get tougher and smaller companies struggle to keep afloat.

"It is logical there might be a certain amount of consolidation," said Chislett.