Santam Earnings Up

February 12 - The short term insurance group, Santam, released a trading update this week ahead of its full year presentation scheduled for March 3, 2010.

The March presentation will cover the year ending December 2009.

The trading update predicted that full yearnings would grow by up to 60%, said the group.

According to Santam, a relatively low number of industrial claims were made in 2009, leading to an increase in earnings.

"Performance of the investment portfolio was positive and substantially better than the losses of the previous corresponding period, largely due to the strengthening of equity markets," said Santam in the update released to the Stock Exchange News Service.

Santam is considered South Africa's largest property and casualty insurer and is majority owned by the financial services group, Sanlam.

Santam, however, remains cautious about future operations and said that overall conditions remain challenging.

Nevertheless, underwriting margins certainly improved in the second half of 2009.

The beginning of 2010 saw Santam shares trading at 10850c a share, while the rest of the year saw heavy selling of the share.

This has led to an approximate 8% loss since January 1st, and the shares are now trading at 9950c.

Last month, Santam reached an agreement to purchase Centriq Insurance. The group already owned 66.7% of Centriq and acquired the further 33.3% from Kasigo Risk Solutions.

"Backed by Santam's reputation and financial strength, Centriq will continue to operate as an independent business, leveraging on Santam's strength as the leading short term insurer in South Africa," said Centriq CEO, Michael Blain last month.