was attended by an audience of insurance professionals representing 20 companies in the Saudi insurance industry. The training workshop focused on the technical aspects of property underwriting covering the different types of construction and their characteristics, common occupancy hazards, fire protection systems, fire and natural catastrophe exposures, and evaluating the risk of burglary and theft.

Mr. Fahad Al-Hesni, MD-CEO of Saudi Re, commented “Property insurance approximately generates premiums of SAR 1 billion representing 6% of the overall insurance market in Saudi Arabia. Thus, Saudi Re conducts these training programs to strengthen the technical knowledge of property line of business which has a great growth potential especially in the light of the economic and infrastructure developments we are experiencing in the Kingdom.” He also added “this workshop comes as part of a series of training events covering a spectrum of topics which Saudi Re hosts for its clients of insurance companies across different markets”.

Saudi Re’s strength factors, in the view of S&P, included the strong capitalization of Saudi Re making it one of the most strongly capitalized out of all Middle East and North Africa (MENA) regional reinsurers. According to S&P, Saudi Re possesses an absolute level of capitalization that ranks it as one of the leaders in terms of overall capacity among Middle Eastern regional reinsurers, and its board of directors has the vision to grow its business stature accordingly in the medium term.

Despite continued competition from regional and global reinsurers, S&P anticipates that Saudi Re will differentiate itself sufficiently from other reinsurers to win an increasing share of the steadily growing Saudi Arabian, GCC, and broader emerging markets' demand for reinsurance protection.

Fahad Al-Hesni, CEO of Saudi Re said “preserving the rating for four years in a row is indicative of Saudi Re’s sound business strategy and fosters our reputation for being a reliable business partner in the eyes of our valued clients”.

Saudi Re is the first licensed reinsurance company in Saudi Arabia established in 2008 with a paid capital of 1 billion Saudi Riyals (USD 267 million). In 2011, Saudi Re achieved growth of 49% in Gross Written Premium and currently serves clients in more than 20 countries in the Middle East, Africa and Asia.