Saudi insurance firm Al-Etihad receives A3 rating from Moody’s

RIYADH, Aug 18 (Arab News): Saudi-based Al-Etihad Cooperative Insu-rance Co. has been awarded an A3 financial strength rating by Moody's, reflecting the firm's strong market position in the Kingdom.
Moody's attributed the A3 rating to Al-Etihad's solid asset quality, strong capital adequacy, and relatively low volume of high-risk assets.
Al-Etihad, a mid-tier property and casualty insurer, offers various commercial and personal insurance products. Moody's A3 rating indicates that the company is in the upper-medium grade with low credit risk and a high ability to repay short-term debts.
"The stable rating outlook reflects our expectation that Al-Etihad will grow its business while maintaining underwriting discipline, as well as maintain its strong capital adequacy," said Moody's.
It added: "However, these strengths are partially offset by Al-Etihad's concentration to the Saudi insurance market, which has an elevated level of competition as well as Al-Etihad's concentration to motor and medical insurance, which are the Saudi insurance market's most competitive lines of business."
The report also highlighted the areas Al-Etihad should concentrate on to continue its key position in the Kingdom's insurance industry.
"In addition, while the insurer has a good position in the Saudi market, it is smaller than similarly rated peers and will need to balance underwriting discipline with business volume growth as it keeps pace with larger peers in a consolidating market," said the US-based agency.
Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia has launched a unified employment portal offering job opportunities spanning across the government and public sectors.
The Jadarat platform was unveiled by the Kingdom's Minister of Human Resources and Development, Ahmed Al-Rajhi. The creation of the online portal falls in line with the country's mission to reduce the rate of unemployment among citizens.
In June, a report released by the General Authority for Statistics said that the unemployment rate among Saudi nationals reached 7.6 per cent in the first quarter of this year, a slight decrease of 0.2 points from the previous quarter and a yearly drop of 1.1 points.