Middlesea seeking to expand in Euro-Med. region

The Middlesea Group is expected to invest more capital and further expand its operations in the Euro-Mediterranean region in the years to come, chairman Mario C. Grech said yesterday.

Addressing journalists during a press conference in which the operations of the group's subsidiaries were explained, Mr Grech said that while the group preferred to operate from Malta due to several advantages in the local financial services sector, the company had to seek new pastures abroad that would be beneficial to its shareholders.

Mr Grech said Middlesea had had a monopoly on reinsurance between 1981 (when it was established) and 1994, when the Maltese government liberalised the financial services market. However, the group had not relied on the monopoly and adopted a policy of expansion by offering different financial services to the local market and by seeking partnerships with foreign companies, he said.

"Middlesea strives to improve the cost efficiency of its operations and this enabled us to perform strongly across the entire group in the past years," Mr Grech said.

He said the local financial services sector could grow if more people were trained, insisting that Malta's strongest asset was the human resource.

Following the chairman's address, presentations on the four main subsidiaries of the group were made.

David G. Curmi presented a business review of Middlesea Valletta Life Assurance Company Ltd of which he is the general manager. Joseph Rizzo, general manager of Middlesea Insurance plc, also made a presentation, followed by Elizabeth Carbonaro, who spoke about the Italy-based Progress Assicurazioni SpA.

Anne Marie Tabone, general manager of International Insurance Management Services Ltd, presented a review of the operations of this subsidiary.

Earlier this month, Middlesea Group announced it had registered a pre-tax operating profit on ordinary activities of Lm2.21 million for 2004, as against Lm1.38 million a year before.

Gross premiums written last year amounted to Lm35.94 million. Shareholders' funds (including MSI's share of the embedded value in Middlesea Valletta Life) grew to Lm24.07 million. The net asset value per share was Lm1.93 and the earnings per share increased by 49 per cent to 12c7. Total group assets increased by almost seven per cent to Lm100.2 million.