Tarkwa, Dec 14, GNA - The State Insurance Company's (SIC) share floatation has been launched at Tarkwa.

The share offer, which was opened on December 03 with 97,822,500 shares at 30 Ghana Pesewas per share, will close on December 21 and investors can purchase a minimum of 200 shares. Mr Manfred Bressey of Merban Stock Brokers said SIC was a dominant player that had firmly held its market, averaging about 39 per cent in the industry of about 32 players.

He said in 2002 its share of the market was 40 per cent. Mr Bressey said SIC's strong brand image which is built on a wide range of products remained the most powerful in the country. Mr Bressey said SIC's profit before tax had grown from 10 billion cedis in 2002 to 46 billion cedis in 2006 and had a consistent dividend record.

It has paid dividend without failure over the past five years with dividend share growing from 80 cedis in 2002 to 260 cedis in 2006.