By Shuchita Kapur
Noor Takaful aims to earn Dh1 billion as premiums in the next five years.
"We just started in the first quarter of this year but we target a 2.5 per cent market share in the next five years. This translates into Dh1 billion in premium," said Parvaiz Siddiq, the CEO of the company while talking to Emirates Business.
Currently, the company is focused on the UAE market but the CEO has not ruled out expansion and acquisitions overseas. "For the moment, we are looking just at our home market, which is the UAE, but if there is something very attractive we will also look at acquitions and expand outside the country," he said.
"In the future, we will probably look at the GCC as a market and any other country that offers attractive opportunities," he added.
To fund its ambitions, Siddiq looks at equity as an option. "We have enough money at this point and we'll raise capital as we go along," he said.
The company has also been saved from stock market losses. "We did not put any money in stock market. All the money is held with Islamic institutions at this point so in that case we were lucky,' he said.
Talking about the industry, Siddiq said conventional companies should be Shariah-compliant entities in the UAE.
"Why do we need a dual financial system? Why can't we have a single Islamic financial system and why do we need conventional financial firms here?" he asked.
Siddiq said Takaful has not had any major impact by the crisis. "There is a lot of premium that is available from conventional companies that will come to Takaful firms but they were also depending on the growth in the market to build their premiums and that has disappeared. About 10-15 per cent growth has fallen due to market conditions and this is a challenge," he said.
--Business24/7
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