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PROFILE: Arig – the home-grown Arab reinsurer

30 July 2009

Yassir Albaharna, CEO of Arab Insurance Group, says his company’s home-grown strategy has been a success.

Read more: arig yassir albaharna arab insurance group

Arab Insurance Group (Arig) has come a long way since the early 1980s, when the governments of Kuwait, Libya and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) teamed up to create the world’s first Arab-owned international reinsurer.

Now owned around 40% by private investors – with the remaining shares split between its three founding governments – Arig claims to be one of the leading regional reinsurers in the Middle East, North Africa and east Asia (collectively known as the Afro-Asia region), with an estimated market share of 10%, $220m of paid-up capital, and four offices in the region, including its head office in Bahrain.

Back to its roots

Life has not always been easy for Arig. When Yassir Albaharna, Arig’s CEO, was appointed to lead the reinsurer in June 2006, the company was coming to the end of a difficult transition period. After several attempts to venture into primary insurance – and a...


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