SORAS Group Limited commonly known as SORAS, is an insurance services group. The group offers a wide range of financial products and services in

insurance Insurance is a means of protection from financial loss in which, in exchange for a fee, a party agrees to compensate another party in the event of a certain loss, damage, or injury. It is a form of risk management, primarily used to hedge ...

property Property is a system of rights that gives people legal control of valuable things, and also refers to the valuable things themselves. Depending on the nature of the property, an owner of property may have the right to consume, alter, share, r ...

and

banking A bank is a financial institution that accepts deposits from the public and creates a demand deposit while simultaneously making loans. Lending activities can be directly performed by the bank or indirectly through capital markets. Because ...

Rwanda Rwanda (; rw, u Rwanda ), officially the Republic of Rwanda, is a landlocked country in the Great Rift Valley of Central Africa, where the African Great Lakes region and Southeast Africa converge. Located a few degrees south of the Equator ...

Overview

The SORAS Group's headquarters are located in Kigali, Rwanda. The group has subsidiaries in Rwanda and an associate in Burundi. SORAS was the first Private Insurance Company to be registered and to operate in Rwanda. SORAS Group is the largest insurance company in Rwanda with a market share of 35%.

History

SORAS Group started its operations on 15 November 1984 as Société Rwandaise d’Assurances, as a subsidiary of Union des Assurances De Paris (UAP) International, to offer insurance services in Rwanda. On 27 September 2010, the firm was transformed into a holding company with two subsidiaries i.e. SORAS Assurances Generales Limited and SORAS VIE Limited. To which it transferred its short and long term businesses to respectively. This was in order to comply with the Rwandan Law no 52/2008 of 10/09/2008 which obligated insurance companies to split short term and long term activities. In 2012, as part of its regional expansion goal, SORAS Group acquired 33% of shares of an insurance company in Burundi, SOCAR SA. This new acquisition led to the change of the company's meaning, SORAS, from Société Rwandaise d’Assurances becoming Société Régionale d’Assurances. The name change was to reflect the Group's status as a regional company. During the financial year 2013, SORAS Group though its subsidiaries SORAS Assurances Generales Limited and SORAS VIE Limited lost its controlling stake in Agaseke Bank after major changes were made in the bank's shareholding structure. This led to a drop in SORAS Group's holding in the bank from 75% to 25%. The withdrawal from Agaseke bank was part of the Group's strategy of refocusing on its insurance business. On 3 March 2014, Sanlam Emerging Markets a

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...

n financial services group, announced that it had concluded an agreement to acquire 63% interest in Soras Group in a deal valued at USD 24.3 Million. This acquisition was completed in June 2014 made SORAS part of a larger global group.

Subsidiaries and Investments

The companies that comprise the SORAS Group Limited include the following:SORAS Group Limited 2013 Annual Report
/ref> # SORAS Assurances Generales Limited –

Kigali Kigali () is the Capital (political), capital and largest city of Rwanda. It is near the nation's geographic centre in a region of rolling hills, with a series of valleys and ridges joined by steep slopes. As a primate city, Kigali has been Rwa ...

- 100% Shareholding - Founded in 2010. Offering short term and general insurance. # SORAS VIE Limited – Kigali, Rwanda - 100% Shareholding - Founded in 2010. Offering

life Life is a quality that distinguishes matter that has biological processes, such as signaling and self-sustaining processes, from that which does not, and is defined by the capacity for growth, reaction to stimuli, metabolism, energ ...

and long term insurance. # Agaseke Bank – Kigali, Rwanda - 25% Shareholding - A

commercial bank A commercial bank is a financial institution which accepts deposits from the public and gives loans for the purposes of consumption and investment to make profit. It can also refer to a bank, or a division of a large bank, which deals with cor ...

in Rwanda, serving individuals and businesses, focusing mainly on

SMEs Superconducting magnetic energy storage (SMES) systems store energy in the magnetic field created by the flow of direct current in a Superconductivity, superconducting coil which has been Cryogenics, cryogenically cooled to a temperature below ...

. Held through SORAS Assurances Generales Limited and SORAS VIE Limited. # SOCAR SA -

Bujumbura Bujumbura (; ), formerly Usumbura, is the economic capital, largest city and main port of Burundi. It ships most of the country's chief export, coffee, as well as cotton and tin ore. Bujumbura was formerly the country's normal capital. In late ...

Burundi Burundi (, ), officially the Republic of Burundi ( rn, Repuburika y’Uburundi ; Swahili language, Swahili: ''Jamuhuri ya Burundi''; French language, French: ''République du Burundi'' ), is a landlocked country in the Great Rift Valley at the ...

- 33% Shareholding - Founded in 1998. Offering insurance services in Burundi.

Ownership

The stock of the group is privately held. As of 30 June 2014, the shareholding in SORAS Group is as depicted in the table below:

Governance

SORAS Group is governed by a five-person Board of Directors with Moranyi Charles serving as the Chairman of the group.

External links

About SORAS Group

Sanlam

References

{{reflist, colwidth=30em Insurance companies of Rwanda Financial services companies established in 1984 1984 establishments in Rwanda Organisations based in Kigali Economy of Kigali