Watania

National Takaful Company (Watania) is a young and dynamic organization that came into being in2011. Watania was issued a license by the UAE Insurance Authority on the 12th of July, 2011 and was listed on the ADX on the 14th of November, 2011. Watania has a paid-up capital of AED150 m and its head office is in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. Watania is an initiative taken by Abu Dhabi National Insurance Company (ADNIC) (16%), Abu Dhabi National Islamic Finance (ADNIF) (16%), Abu Dhabi National Energy Company (TAQA) (7%), and Aldar Properties (7%).

Their objective was to establish a leading takaful operator in the UAE which could meet the demand of the UAE market for Sharia compliant insurance products. Watania floated its stocks for an IPO on the 18th of April 2011 with issue oversubscribed nearly 7times. After the allotment process, Ajman Bank (16%) and Qatar First Development Bank (10%) joined the ranks of the founding shareholders. Watania started underwriting risks on 14th of November, 2011.

In August 2014 there was a major change in the shareholding structure of Watania whereby MB Investment UAE and Madina Takaful Oman acquired a majority 60% stake in the company from existing shareholders. Current major shareholders are MB Investment UAE (51%), ADNIF (15.74%), Madina Takaful, Oman (9.54%) and Bin Harmal (8.37%).