Kenya's CIC Insurance plans expansion into South Sudan, Uganda - Reuters Africa

The insurer, in which Co-operative Bank is the single largest shareholder, said it planned to create a subsidiary in South Sudan and acquire a 40 percent stake in Uganda Cooperative Savings and Credit Union.

Insurance is viewed as a growth sector in the east Africa, because of low penetration rates, with less than 5 percent of the population having any form of insurance cover.

CIC said regional expansion was one avenue for growth. Others the company said it was pursuing included "micro insurance", new channels of distribution and diversification of investment strategies.

CIC said its pretax profit rose to 1.65 billion shillings ($19.22 million) from 787 million shillings in 2012, on the back of a 34 percent rise of gross premium to 9 billion shillings and a 169 percent climb in investment income to 1.4 billion shillings. The company said the jump in investment income was mainly from prevailing high interest rates and diversification into property.

Claims rose 47 percent to 4.6 billion shillings during the year.

Earnings per share rose to 0.64 shillings from 0.40 shillings in 2011. The firm increased its final dividend by 11 percent to 0.10 shillings per share.

($1 = 85.8500 Kenyan shillings) (Reporting by Kevin Mwanza. Editing by Jane Merriman)