Abstract
M.Comm.
Every modern-day company is faced with challenges on a daily basis to improve its performance. This challenge stretches further than the financial target that is received from the shareholders every year and boils right down to the day to day operations of a company. How does the company perform according to the market, does the company have a uniqueness that will allow for a competitive advantage, how can costs be reduced in order to create value in terms of shareholders and how to stay the blueprint company with its competitors seen as followers.
The objective of this study is to determine the effect that financial risk management in terms of a cell captive insurance facility has on a company, especially the financial side and ultimately to provide a framework on the implementation of a cell captive insurance facility. A cell captive insurance facility stems from the self insurance principle and is tailored to a unique product offered by various insurance companies. It enables a company to insure its frequent losses at a lower premium than the insurance market and all surpluses resulting from the Captive can be regarded as profit to the owner of the captive or used to lower the following year's contribution. In order to obtain a Cell Captive's insurance facility, a company must purchase shares in an insurance company, known as a sponsor, and hereby receive certain
insurance amenities. The captive that is now formed enables a company to insure all business related activities against possible risks with a further extension of the definition 'business related activities'. Due to the unlikely event to completely self insure, with regards to the cost implication and bearing the size of the captive in mind to cover all possible financial losses, an underwritten agreement between the cell captive owner and the sponsor insurance company should cater for all catastrophic risks which protects the captive from collapsing, due to a massive loss.
With the creation of a cell captive insurance facility, the owner of the captive can extend on all its business related activities and offer insurance products to its employees and clients, with a reasonably reduce rate compared to the insurance market. The success of theses products can be so-good that the financial impact on the captive proofs the products to be self-reliant and even generates an income for the cell captive insurance facility.
As a result of the objective to implement effective risk management via a cell captive insurance facility and to create profit by doing so, the results of the Vodacom Group was used in order to emphasize the successfulness of a cell captive insurance facility. Vodacom Group saved or rather refer to the term as "created" a net underwriting profit that amounts to R 3,385,275 in the first three months by using its Cell Captive Insurance Facility. Thats more than enough to prove the financial gain, but the company also benefited from the fact that it now has the ability to educate its managers and their management styles. The captive can no
act as the focal point of the Group's risk management effort, by focusing the minds of senior management on the causes of claims and means to combat that.