The Tribune

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

A BISX-listed insurance group yesterday unveiled a 36.8 percent year-over-year profit increase for 2021 as its top executive said it was "time to be cautiously optimistic" after two years of COVID.

Alister McKellar, J S Johnson's managing director, channelled his Winston Churchill spirit when telling shareholders: "After two-plus years of COVID-related issues, concerns,and worries, it finally feels like time to be cautiously optimistic again. And our financial results for the fourth quarter of 2021 seem to support the change.

"The combination of an easing of COVID restrictions, a quiet hurricane season, and Bahamians just simply wanting to get on with life led to renewed activity in both our business segments for the 2021 fourth quarter.

"Stalled construction projects began to restart in earnest and people seemed to re-establish many of their normal pre-pandemic activities. Both our underwriting and agency divisions reflected these developments by registering double-digit gains and boosting total net income by 37 percent over the previous year."

J S Johnson, which incorporates the performance of Insurance Company of The Bahamas (ICB) into its results, disclosed that net income for the year to end-December 2021 rose by more than $2m - from $6.58m in 2020 to $8.999m last year.

"Although we witnessed a 10 percent increase in other operating expenses from $4.538m to $4.995m due to ongoing COVID measures, this was offset largely by a 33 percent decrease in claims incurred from $1.839m to $1.225m, resulting in a slight decrease in total expenses. This, coupled with a 9 percent increase in total income, yielded the increase in profitability," Mr McKellar said.

Basing his renewed optimism on The Bahamas' improved tourism performance and outlook, he added: "The nation’s tourism industry began to show signs of renewal in the last quarter of 2021 as well. According to Central Bank figures, inbound visitors to our shores shot up from 13,381 in Nov 2020 to 383,706 for the same period in 2021.

"Another key indicator of our tourism health - total room nights sold - also experienced an uptick in December, posting a more than two-fold increase over the previous year (50,000 to 124,000). Even outbound traffic from the country to the US increased by 419 percent (83,115 in 2021 versus 16,009 the previous year) as Bahamians once again ventured from our shores after a long hiatus."