KUALA LUMPUR (Sept 18): MNRB Holdings Bhd will focus on growing its takaful business, as well as maintaining its position as the market leader in the Malaysian Reinsurance market.

"We have a 53.5% market share in the domestic reinsurance market through our subsidiary Malaysian Reinsurance Bhd, and we hope to maintain this as well as grow our takaful business, through our other subsidiary Takaful Ikhlas Bhd," MNRB Chief Executive Officer Mohd Din Merican told reporters, after the company annual general meeting today.

MNRB’s reinsurance business contributes approximately 90% of its earnings, while its takaful business contributes 10%.

However, Mohd Din did not provide target growth rates for the financial year ending March 2015, but shared that MNRB currently has two million takaful policyholders, from 1.8 million policyholders three years ago.

"There is a general misconception that takaful is only for Muslims. But 10% of our two million takaful policyholders are actually non-Muslims. Our value proposition is product driven, and not race," said Merican.

He added that MNRB’s reinsurance customer base consists of 62% domestic customers and 38% international customers.

MNRB reported a net profit of RM42.28 million for the first quarter ended June 2014 — an increase of 9.54% year-on-year. Revenue however came in lower at RM578.04 million, compared with RM584.96 million previously.