Regional economic and investment headwinds, together with softening trading conditions have impacted the performance of Qatar Insurance company during the first nine months of this year, but not enough to stop it boosting its profit for the period by $5 million to $195 million.

Qatar Insurance Company is the parent of Bermudian-based Qatar Re, and has a Lloyd’s platform, Antares.

Qatar Re, which has offices on Pitts Bay Road, has been ranked in the global top 35 reinsurers in a report published by AM Best.

QIC’s gross written premiums for the period were $2.12 billion, compared with $1.47 billion for the same segment of 2015.

The group’s investment income was up 38 per cent at $151 million, while its net underwriting income for the nine-months slipped to $151 million, down $24 million on a year-to-year basis. This 14 per cent decrease has been attributed to “a few major losses”.

QIC’s underwriting profitability was crimped. Its non-life combined ratio for the first nine months of this year was 98.9 per cent, up from 94.3 per cent for the same period in 2015.

Khalifa Al Subaey, group president, said: “Despite prevailing volatility, our domestic, regional and global insurance operations have continued to perform in line with expectations.

“In particular, we have witnessed increased buoyancy in our personal lines business in the MENA [Middle East, North Africa] region. The outlook for personal lines including motor, medical and life insurance business is a regional strength and an area for further focused growth.

“Going forward, in line with our strategy and expected development of the regional markets, we anticipate seeing benefits of the measures that have been implemented to boost both our efficiency and effectiveness.

“With greater cost rationalisation, general and administrative expenses year-on-year have remained stable, despite significant premium growth.

“On the back of our new product launches that are under way and our renewed focus on growth markets, we are confident that our book of business will continue to expand.”

QIC is based in Qatar, and at the end of September had a market capitalisation of $5.88 billion.

Mr Al Subaey said QIC’s results reflected increasingly competitive global insurance and reinsurance market conditions, and financial market volatility.

However, he added: “During the nine-month period we were successful in adding another milestone to our list of achievements — Qatar Re, our global multi-line reinsurance subsidiary was ranked amongst the global top 35 reinsurers in 2015 as per a report published by AM Best.”

Mr Al Subaey said QIC would continue to grow and expand Qatar Re’s “global franchise through capital injections and efficient capital management”.

He said QIC’s Lloyd’s platform Antares had demonstrated “sustained premium growth whilst remaining committed to prudent underwriting and risk selection”.