AOIC: Insurance

THE COMPANY: Over the past few years, AOIC man-aged to assert itself as a leader in the Jordanian insur-ance sector with a comprehensive product mix, strong connections with leading regional insurers and global re-insurers, and exceptional financial results. The strong performance of AOIC is most evident by the B++ rat-ing it received from A.M. Best, the leading insurance rating authority in the world. AOIC offers a wide range of insurance products that include medical, property, motor, general and travel insurance, among others, but does not offer life insur-ance currently. AOIC distinguishes itself by offering a wider selection of products, including over 10 differ-ent off-the-shelf products. More importantly, AOIC is able to customise these products to fit the needs of individual clients and also stands ready to tailor-make a product from scratch to fit a list of specific needs. AOIC’s extensive product line includes specialised items such as insurance against loss to clients due to the negligence of their brokers or accountants and insurance of money during collection and transport. The product line-up also includes mainstream product lines such as group medical insurance to corporate employees and property insurance. The product mix has evolved over time as AOIC estab-lished stronger business relations with global insurers and as the needs of the sector changed. AOIC entered into a partnership with Bupa International, a leading medical insurer, and as a result AOIC’s customers can now enjoy access to over 200,000 medical providers and 7500 hospitals and clinics worldwide. This type of access is especially important for travellers, and for the many Jordanian expatriates living and working abroad. In recent years AOIC added cancer insurance as a result of the increased awareness among citizens of the importance of having this type of insurance in the face of the very high cost of cancer treatment and the increased diagnosis of the disease. Customisation is a key concept for AOIC, and this can be clearly seen with the array of sub-products offered under the main classes. In the medical insurance cat-egory, for example, one can buy a basic package and then add additional insurance items. A customer who buys the Crown Family medical insurance package can add on insurance for his/her domestic help for an addi-tional fee. This ability to customise packages allows not only for cross-selling, as in the case of mixing a gener-al medical insurance policy with a cancer insurance policy, for example, but also allows clients to control their insurance spending.

AOIC’s excellence and potential was noticed by major insurance players in the world including the US’s Fair-fax Group, which bought a 20% stake in the company back in 2008. In 2009 the Kuwait-based Gulf Insurance bought 55% of AOIC, and AOIC became a subsidiary of the Kuwaiti group. At the same time, it attracted inter-nationally renowned partners such as the UK’s Bupa International, and global re-insurers such as Munich Re, Odyssey Re and Trans Re.

COMPANY DEVELOPMENT: The cornerstone of the company’s future plans is the complete integration with Gulf Insurance. The process started in 2012 with AOIC taking on the Gulf Insurance trademark and look. A second key concept that AOIC is working to imple-ment is the creation of stronger connection with clients. To that end, AOIC’s staff makes more than 700 sales and service calls a week. Moreover, AOIC is opening more branches across the country to give its clients easier access to its services and products.

The management of the company sees a fragment-ed sector with 27 players, and it believes that strong income from operations is key to survival and growth as opposed to revenue from the investment of premi-ums. Moreover, AOIC is seeking a growing share of the corporate insurance business and is looking to attract clients with a wide range of insurance products to diversify away from motor insurance. AOIC is banking on a growing segment of insurance-educated profes-sionals who are more aware of the important role of insurance in their lives than previous generations were.