Argus Europe Regional Report

Dear Shareholders,

The last two years of my 25 years in Financial Services have been a career high point. As Argus Europe Chief Executive I am so proud of what we have collectively achieved as a team and of the important contribution that we have made to the Argus Group over the last year.

It is from this solid and profitable foundation that we are poised to drive forward our focus on sustainable financial wellbeing and growth strategies. We are building on our customer-centric culture which is based on trust, empathy, ease and transparency.

We’ll be challenging ourselves to provide more responsive, interactive experiences that will serve to protect and build financial wellbeing. Let’s take a closer look at how we’re positioning ourselves to deliver with our business proposition, with our awesome team and with our innovative solutions.

We are building on our customer-centric culture which is based on trust, empathy, ease and transparency.

Introducing Antes

We are pleased to introduce Antes, our new broker business. We merged our two, well-established broker businesses in Malta, Island Insurance Brokers and FirstUnited Insurance Brokers.

While the effort was significant, there were two non-negotiables we wanted to ensure throughout the merger; to maintain excellent service to our customers and to ensure our team had the support they needed as we managed the various changes. I am pleased to say we achieved both, intentionally focusing on our customers and our people.

There is more to Antes than meets the eye. While Antes is a new brand, it has a team with decades of experience in serving personal and business clients. Antes is now the largest and fastest growing broker in Malta and is part of the critical foundation for our European growth strategy. Through Antes, we continue to deliver a comprehensive suite of products as part of our financial wellness offering so our customers can have peace of mind. Antes is a broker with a purpose, building relationships based on trust and integrity.

I extend a huge thank you to our team across the Argus Group who contributed to the successful launch of Antes.

Antes is now the largest and fastest growing broker in Malta and is part of the critical foundation for our European growth strategy.

Take a Closer Look at our Technological Capabilities

One of the goals of our European insurance carrier is to make it easy for clients and intermediaries to do business with us and provide the foundation for innovative products.

These goals guide our technology solutions and we’ve already made progress through upgrading to a modern core platform. This new platform allowed us to launch three new innovative products and provided a simplified experience for our brokers and tied insurance intermediaries, our customers and our employees. This innovative platform will enable our growth plans and the continued improvement of our service and digital offerings.

A win for our brokers who can generate quotes and place business much faster.

A win for policyholders who can quickly get cover from their intermediary.

A win for our staff who can now devote more time to enhancing our customers’ experiences and delivering greater value.

Take a closer look at our team. We have spent the last few years growing our European team and putting the right people in place. We are an organisation that not only looks at technical experience, and yes that’s important, but we also want to ensure our people are aligned with our corporate values. Respect, collaboration and accountability were the highest scoring themes emerging from our annual employee engagement survey. This doesn’t just reflect how we treat each other but it also reflects how we treat our customers. We are not resting on our laurels as there is always room for improvement in enhancing our employee and customer experience, and this will be an intentional area of focus for the upcoming year.

I am proud to be working with a team that is empowered to do the right thing, at all times for our customers, for our community and for our environment

Take a closer look at our Financial Strength

While the global economic landscape has been impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, rising costs and rising interest rates, the economies in Gibraltar and Malta are starting to rebound with a steady increase in tourism and construction projects.

Economic growth in both Argus Europe territories is ahead of the European Union and United Kingdom average growth and other macroeconomic indicators make us bullish about future economic growth. Our dedicated team of professionals have delivered excellent growth, leading to another year of solid financial performance for Argus Europe, with Antes leading growth in net earnings by 10 percent year over year.

Thank you. I am excited about the future. We are poised to grow while delivering innovative solutions for our individual and corporate clients. I must thank my team who are dedicated and hard working. They are the ones who make the company a great place to work and who rise daily to the opportunities as they are presented. I appreciate their time, enthusiasm and commitment. As Alison said in her letter, we are building the company we each want to work for.

Our dedicated team of professionals have delivered excellent growth, leading to another year of solid financial performance.