AM Best downgrades QGIRCO's outlook

AM Best has confirmed Qatar General Insurance and Reinsurance Company's (QGIRCO) Financial Strength Rating of A- (excellent) and the Long-Term Issuer Credit Rating of “a-”. However, it has revised downwards the outlook for these ratings from stable to negative.

For AM Best, this decision is accounted for by the deterioration of the Qatari insurer's operational performance. Between 2014 and 2018, the latter generated an average return on equity of 8.6%.

For the first nine months of 2019, QGIRCO reported a net profit of 6 million QAR (1.64 million USD) compared to 70 million QAR (19.21 million USD) one year earlier. This significant decline is due to the increasing large losses and to the unfavourable fair value movement. For its part, the company's combined ratio exceeded 100%.

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