EFG Hermes Holding and GB Capital launch Kaf

A new name enters the Egyptian insurance market; Kaf. The brand was created following the 2020 acquisition of a 75% stake in Tokio Marine Egypt Family Takaful by EFG Hermes Holding and GB Capital
Since the acquisition, the company has grown its customer base from 0.1 million to 2 million
Kaf aims at differentiating and disrupting the market by emphasising insurance as a social good and providing clients with transparent, easy-to-understand, tech-enabled insurance solutions

Cairo: Following the acquisition of a 75% stake by EFG Hermes Holding and GB Capital in Tokio Marine Egypt Family Takaful in 2020, the company has been rebranded to Kaf. Under the guidance of new management brought in following the acquisition, the company aims to set itself apart by making insurance effortless for their customers and by providing them with straight-forward, fair, and value-for-money insurance solutions.

Kaf aims to make insurance simpler, more accessible, and hassle-free to the wider strata of the Egyptian population, all through a trusted platform that caters to the various needs of the company’s clients. The brand name Kaf in Arabic means adequate and fit for the purpose. True to its name, Kaf aims to secure client satisfaction through ease of accessibility, minimal bureaucracy, and absolute transparency. In short, Kaf promises to make insurance easy and well-suited for its customers.

“We are incredibly proud of how far we have come in such a short time in the market, which I can only attribute to the strength of our young, passionate, and growing team, the trust our clients have placed in us, and a commitment to our purpose: driving the perception of insurance as a social good that safeguards the health and wealth of Egyptians,” said Sohail Ali, Managing Director of Kaf. “Since our launch, we have worked hard to provide peace of mind and improve the lives of individuals and, by extension, their communities through offering simple-to-understand products and fresh solutions, which is reflected in our slogan: making it easy, doing it right. Moving forward, we will continue to live up to our purpose of contributing to social stability and poverty reduction by bridging the insurance gap in Egypt through innovative, tech-enabled solutions.”

Since the acquisition 18 months ago, Kaf has witnessed explosive growth, from 0.1 million customers pre-acquisition to currently covering the lives of c. 2 million Egyptians in 2022. The company has been focused on issuing policies targeting employees, small business owners, and the micro segment.

“Insurance is an important tool for economic development, and we are currently reaping the fruits of reforms in Egypt that foster financial inclusion. Recently, the Egyptian government has worked to improve access to financial services for the low-income segment, developing sound regulatory frameworks and lowering barriers to financial access, and we expect continued growth in the Non-Bank Financial Institutions (NBFI) segment over the coming years. We’re honored to support and be part of this initiative to increase awareness of the importance of insurance. Plugging the insurance gap will provide protection for the low-income segment from falling into poverty in the event of misfortune,” added Ali.

Building on the disruptive heritage of both EFG Hermes Holding and GB Capital, Kaf will seek to bring a fresh perspective to a well-established industry. The company is focused on building tech-led, innovative insurance solutions, designed with accessibility and simplicity in mind. This is expected to manifest itself in the introduction of products with simple policy terms and leveraging on seamless processes that center around transparency and user friendliness.

Aladdin ElAfifi, CEO of EFG Hermes Holding's Non-Bank Financial Institutions (NBFI) platform, commented, "Kaf's success, built on the longstanding history of collaboration between EFG Hermes Holding and GB Capital, is as exciting as it is high-yielding and conducive to exponential growth. Our strategy for the NBFI platform is to persist in identifying key opportunities in the market that allow us to fully capitalize on our cross-selling capabilities so that we may continue to reap the fruits of these collaborations in the near future. We are advancing towards this goal with full force, exerting ambitious efforts towards not only providing more integrated, end-to-end service offerings, but also creating space for natural synergies between our companies that will no doubt result in future growth for all stakeholders."

In 2015, EFG Hermes Holding launched its NBFI platform to offer a wealth of non-bank financial services, such as factoring and leasing through EFG Hermes Corp-Solutions; microfinance through Tanmeyah; Buy-Now, Pay-Later (BNPL) through valU; mortgage financing through Bedaya; e-payments through PayTabs Egypt; and now insurance though Kaf.

Commenting on GB Capital’s investment in Kaf, GB Capital’s Chairman, Mansour Kabbani, said, “We strive to explore the full, and yet untapped, potential of this market. We are aware that the Egyptian insurance industry is primed for significant growth and profitable expansion, and we intend to capitalize on that. As such, this move aligns perfectly with our vision for the future, which sees our NBFI business expanding as we diversify our portfolio of offerings in the areas of leasing, consumer finance, Buy-Now, Pay-Later, factoring, micro finance, mortgage finance, securitization, fleet leasing, e-payments, and insurance.”

-Ends-

About Kaf

Kaf is an Egyptian insurance company licensed to offer life, savings, and health insurance products. Established in 2021 as a collaboration between EFG Hermes Holding, GB Capital and Tokio Marine, Kaf is committed to building a meaningful local insurance platform with the purpose of driving value for individuals and businesses in the life, savings, and medical arenas for the segments of society that have low insurance penetration. The company aims to constantly provide innovative insurance solutions with the aim of boosting demand in the retail and corporate markets and bridging the ‘insurance-gap’ in Egypt.

About EFG Hermes Holding

With a current footprint spanning 14 countries across four continents, EFG Hermes Holding (EGX: HRHO.CA – LSE: EFGD) has grown over 38 years of success to transform from a pure-play investment bank in MENA into a universal bank in Egypt with the leading investment bank franchise in Frontier Emerging Markets (FEM). Drawing on our proven track-record and a diverse team of talented employees, we provide a wide spectrum of financial services that include advisory, asset management, securities brokerage, research, and private equity to the entire FEM region. In our home country, we have the fastest-growing non-bank financial institutions (NBFI) platform with operations covering microfinance, leasing, factoring, Buy-Now Pay-Later (BNPL), digital payment solutions, mortgage finance and insurance.

Through its three verticals, the Investment Bank, Non-Bank Financial Institutions (NBFI) and Commercial Bank, the group is perfectly positioned to consistently bring disruptive financial products and services to the market space, offering a holistic portfolio that best serves its growing base of individual clients and businesses of all sizes.

Learn more about us at www.efghermes.com & stay connected with us:

For further information, please contact:

The EFG Hermes Holding Public Relations Team

PublicRelations@efg-hermes.com

May El Gammal
Group Chief Marketing & Communications Officer of EFG Hermes Holding

melgammal@efg-hermes.com

About GB Auto S.A.E.

GB Auto S.A.E. (AUTO.CA on the Egyptian Exchange) is a leading automotive company in the Middle East and Non-Bank Financial Services (NBFS) provider in Egypt. Across six primary lines of business — passenger cars, motorcycles and three-wheelers, commercial vehicles and construction equipment, tires, after-sales, and Iraqi operations — the company’s main business activities include assembly, manufacturing, sales and distribution, financing, and after-sales services. GB Auto’s portfolio of brands includes Hyundai, Mazda, Chery, Changan, Haval, Karry, Bajaj, Marcopolo, Iveco, Volvo Truck and Volvo Bus, Volvo Construction Equipment, Mitsubishi Fuso, SDLG, Higer, shacman, Lassa, Yokohama, Westlake, Double Coin, Goodyear, Thunderer, Verde, Techking, Sun full, MG, and Gazpromneft. GB Auto has operations in Egypt and Iraq. The company’s NBFS segment, branded as GB Capital, offers leasing, consumer finance, microfinance, nano loans, SME lending, BNPL, collection, peer-to-peer transfers, bill payments, fleet quasi-operational leasing, factoring, securitization, mortgage finance, and insurance under the following brands: GB Lease, Drive, MNT-Halan, Haram, Capital Securitization, Forsa, Bedaya, and Kaf. The company is headquartered in Giza, Egypt.

Note on Forward-Looking Statements

In this press release, EFG Hermes Holding may make forward looking statements, including, for example, statements about management’s expectations, strategic objectives, growth opportunities and business prospects. These forward-looking statements are not historical facts but instead represent only EFG Hermes Holding’s belief regarding future events, many of which, by their nature are inherently uncertain and are beyond management’s control and include among others, financial market volatility; actions and initiatives taken by current and potential competitors; general economic conditions and the effect of current, pending, and future legislation, regulations and regulatory actions. Accordingly, the readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date on which they are made.