Doha Insurance plans rights issue $120m

Doha Insurance plans $120m rights issue

Non-life insurer, Doha Insurance, has announced details of a long-awaited rights issue which would raise of QAR436.7 million (US$119.9 million) for the company. The move will nearly double its capital. The insurer announced earlier this week that it would seek shareholder approval next month for the capital increase, with the funds aimed at strengthening its ability to carry out business at home and abroad. It has received regulatory approval to issue 24,260,000 new shares to shareholders through a rights issue, it said in a bourse filing. A vote on the rights issue is expected to be held on 17 February, according to Reuters. The rights issue would increase the insurer's financial solvency and further improve its credit rating, which would allow it to compete for mega projects both locally and internationally, the insurer said. Qatar is in the midst of a building boom, with plans to spend as much as US$140 billion on infrastructure projects, including a new airport, stadiums, roads and railways, as it prepares to host the soccer World Cup in 2022.

News Sources :  www.meinsurancereview.com

U.A.E Insurance premium to rise bad for driversans

 UAE: Insurance premiums to rise for bad drivers

Several insurers in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) have begun charging motor insurance premiums based on drivers' traffic record, as they now have an electronic link to traffic departments via a portal called Markabty launched by the Ministry of Interior. This means that drivers, who have been involved in major accidents or have too many speeding tickets issued against their name, will have to pay higher premiums compared to those with safe driving records. The criteria that insurance companies used previously to determine motor premiums were the age of the driver, his profession, and the date he received his driving licence, among others. This sometimes resulted in an unfair advantage for older bad drivers at the expense of younger drivers who had committed no traffic violations. Executives at Emirates Insurance Association say that the Markabty link has been active since the end of last July, reports the Emirates 24/7 news website. Mr Saleh bin Rashid Al Dhaheri, chairman of Emirates Insurance Association, says that the mechanism will enable insurance companies to maximise profits in the auto insurance sector through a clear understanding of risks associated with bad drivers while at the same time, customers with clean traffic records will be rewarded with discounts on premiums. The discounts range from 20 percent to 35 percent, depending on the length of time the driver maintains a clean record. He says that the association aims to reduce the number of traffic accidents and promote safe driving.

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50 years of tobacco extended lives of 8 million Americans

Loren Grush

In 1964, the U.S. surgeon general first came out with a report detailing the significant health risks associated with smoking cigarettes. Now, 50 years later, the report’s positive effects are still being felt in the United States. A new study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) has concluded that the surgeon general’s report, along with various other tobacco control efforts, have significantly extended the lives of 8 million Americans – adding nearly 20 years to their life expectancy. “The 1964 report, in many ways, was a watershed event for public health,” senior author David Levy, a population scientist at Georgetown Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center, told FoxNews.com. “By that time, sufficient evidence had accumulated to demonstrate that smoking cigarettes has a profoundly negative effect on an individual’s health. Following that publicity, a number of events occurred that really caused smokers to quit – taxes on cigarettes, smoke free air laws, bans on advertisements and health reporting.” In the 1960s, more than 40 percent of American adults smoked cigarettes, but now, only 20 percent of adults continue to smoke – a decrease Levy attributes to the surgeon general’s warning. To really gauge the magnitude of the report’s effects, Levy and his team analyzed smoking rates over the past 50 years, in relation to people’s ages, when they started smoking and other factors. The researchers found that since 1964, 17.6 million deaths could be attributed to smoking in the United States. Of this number, 6.6 million occurred in people below the age of 65, equaling a substantial loss due to death and illness among the working age group, Levy said. However, the team also used statistical modeling to determine what mortality rates would have looked like if the surgeon general’s report had never occurred and tobacco control efforts had never been utilized. They then compared these hypothetical death rates to the actual death rates, estimating that 157 million years of life were saved – translating to 19.6 additional years of life for each smoker who quit. “Many of the people that quit initially were younger people,” Levy said. “People usually quit in their 20s or 30s, or they quit later on in life when they experience severe health problems. But the reductions have occurred across the board. In particular there’s been much less association of smoking with the young.” While this is very positive news for the millions of smokers who quit, Levy said there is still a long way to go in order to save more lives. According to the annual cancer statistics report from the American Cancer Society, lung cancer remains the deadliest form of the disease – leading to one in four cancer deaths. Levy said it’s important to continue with tobacco control, since it has had such a substantial effect. He also noted that the rise of e-cigarettes could be beneficial in helping people quit, as long as smokers completely make the switch from regular cigarettes to the electronic kind. “Eight million have avoided death due to smoking, but we still have a substantial number of people who are dying from smoking,” Levy said. “…This is an example of an important public health event. This is something that also provides lessons concerned with trends in obesity; changing prices and educational campaigns can have an important effect.” The research was conducted by scientists at the Cancer Intervention and Surveillance Modeling Network (CISNET) and was funded by the National Cancer Institute.

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