The Saudi insurance industry has reported growth in total premium income for the first quarter of the year, while the net income saw a notable setback, according to the Insurance Authority's latest quarterly report.
Gross written premiums generated by the Saudi insurance market reached SAR26bn ($6.9bn) in 1Q2025, registering a 15% increase over the SAR22.6bn posted in the first quarter of 2024.
The report shows that the health insurance branch remained the largest line of business with premiums in 1Q2025 reaching SAR15.6bn compared to SAR14.1bn in 1Q2024, a growth rate of 10.9%. Motor insurance business contributed premiums of SAR4.0bn in the first quarter of the year, a year-on-year increase of 9.5%. Property and casualty premiums rose by 10% to SAR4.1bn from SAR3.8bn.
Protection and saving (life) insurance premiums surged by 98.7% in 1Q2025 to SAR2.3bn from SAR1.1bn in the first quarter of the previous year.
The report added that net insurance premiums increased by almost 17% in 1Q2025 to SAR23.1bn against SAR19.8bn in the same quarter of 2024. For the same period, insurance revenues increased by 7.2% to SAR17bn compared to SAR15.9bn.
Net income after zakat and tax of insurance companies decreased by 26% to SAR663.3m in 1Q2025 versus SAR897.3m in 1Q2024. The drop is attributed to the decline in insurance service results by about 20.1% from SAR837m in 1Q2024 to SAR669m in the first quarter of this year.
Net investment income decreased by 15% to SAR669m in 1Q2025 compared to SAR787m in 1Q2024.
The solvency margin for insurance companies reached 170.4% in the first quarter of 2025, while the insurance sector accounted for 2.85% of the Kingdom's non-oil GDP and 2.20% of GDP.
Highlights of Saudi insurance market’s 1Q2025 financial performance
|
SAR m
|
1Q2025
|
1Q2024
|
Change
|
|
Gross written premiums
|
26,012.7
|
22,628.7
|
15.0%
|
|
Insurance Revenue
|
17,026.7
|
15,882.1
|
7.2%
|
|
Insurance services results
|
668.9
|
837.1
|
-20.1%
|
|
Net investment income
|
669.0
|
787.3
|
-15.0%
|
|
Insurance finance income income/(expenses)
|
-547.9
|
-395.0
|
-38.7%
|
|
Other income/(expenses)
|
-394.5
|
73,350.6
|
->100%
|
|
Net income after Zakat and tax
|
663.5
|
897.3
|
-26.1%
|
|
Return on assets
|
0.74%
|
1.13%
|
-0.39 ppt
|
|
Return on equity
|
2.31%
|
3.66%
|
-1.35 ppt
|
Source: Insurance Authority