A small, long-established general insurer with almost no debt and a steady 10% cash dividend — but its profit has been flat for years and it hands out nearly everything it earns.

Eastland Insurance PLC is a general (non-life) insurance company — the kind that covers things like fire, property, marine cargo and motor risks rather than life policies. It has been listed on the Dhaka Stock Exchange since 1994, so it is a long-established, more-than-30-year-old name rather than a new arrival.

By size it is a small company. Its paid-up capital is about 83.9 crore taka and it has built up reserves of roughly 97.1 crore taka over the years, on a base of about 8.39 crore shares with a face value of 10 taka each. The founding sponsors and directors still own around 41% of the company, so the people who run it hold a large personal stake alongside ordinary shareholders.

DSE places it in category A, the group kept for companies that hold their annual meetings and pay dividends on time — a sign of a compliant, steady operator rather than a troubled one.

Like every insurer, Eastland makes money in two ways. First, it collects premiums from customers who buy cover, and keeps whatever is left after paying out claims. Second, it earns a return by investing that pool of money while it waits to pay claims — interest, and income from its investment holdings.

The steadier of the two engines shows up in its operating profit, which in recent years has run roughly 13 to 19 crore taka (for example about 18.6 crore in 2022 and 13.4 crore in 2024). After tax, that turns into a net profit of around 9 to 14 crore taka a year.

One thing to understand: for an insurer, the plain "sales/revenue" line can look tiny or even negative once claims and money set aside for future claims are subtracted from premiums. That is normal insurance accounting — so with a company like this it is far more useful to follow the profit it actually keeps than any single "sales" figure.

Eastland has made a profit in every year we can see. Net profit was about 9.16 crore taka in 2020, rose to 12.7 crore in 2021 and peaked at 13.7 crore in 2022, then slipped back to 9.6 crore in 2023, 8.95 crore in 2024 and 9.25 crore in 2025. Profit per share followed the same shape — up to 1.63 taka in 2022, then back down to around 1.10 taka.

So the honest picture is a company that earns money reliably but does not grow it. Over the whole 2020–2025 stretch, net profit is up only about 1% in total and profit per share is actually down about 2%. In the most recent year, profit per share barely moved, edging from 1.07 to 1.10 taka.

A quieter point worth noting is cash. The actual cash coming in from its day-to-day business has been positive but modest — roughly 6 to 7 crore taka a year (for example about 6.37 crore in 2024), which is a bit below the profit it reports on paper. That is not alarming for a stable insurer, but it means the reported profit is not fully backed by hard cash.

On safety, Eastland looks strong. It is effectively debt-free: its total loans are shown as zero and its borrowings against its own money have been tiny in every year — a debt-to-equity level of only about 0.01 to 0.02. In plain terms, it does not owe money it would struggle to repay.

Behind that sits a real cushion. The company's own money (equity) has held steady at roughly 175 to 182 crore taka, its total assets are around 256 to 284 crore taka, and it keeps a cash pile of about 40 to 50 crore taka — large next to a company that earns under 10 crore of profit a year.

So the risk here is not that the company could go under in a bad year; its balance sheet could comfortably absorb a rough patch. The real weakness is not safety but the lack of growth, which the earnings section already covered.

This is the company's strongest point. After a 7% stock dividend (bonus shares) in 2020 and a small 1% cash payout in 2021, Eastland has paid a steady 10% cash dividend — that is 1.00 taka on each 10-taka share — in every year from 2022 through 2025. For an income-minded shareholder, that dependability is the whole appeal.

There is even a shareholder-friendly wrinkle: for the 2025 dividend, the sponsors and directors gave up their share of the cash so that only the general public shareholders received it. That is unusual and works in ordinary investors' favour.

The caution is how much of the profit that dividend uses up. The company earns about 1.10 taka per share and pays out 1.00 taka of it — so nearly all of its yearly profit goes straight back out as dividend, leaving very little kept back. As long as profit holds up, the dividend can continue; but with almost no buffer, a weak year could put pressure on the payout.

Honestly, Eastland does not have a strong special edge. It is one of many small general insurers competing in a crowded field, and its strengths are steadiness rather than any pricing power or brand that lets it grow faster than rivals: a long history since 1994, a debt-free balance sheet, and a dependable dividend.

When you line it up against peers in the same sector, the growth gap shows. Eastland's profit per share has been essentially flat over five years and barely moved in the latest year (1.07 to 1.10 taka). Several peers, by contrast, grew their latest-year earnings sharply — United Insurance by about +53%, Peoples Insurance about +47%, and Sena Insurance about +20% — although two others fell (Reliance about -8%, Pragati about -5%). So the sector has more dynamic names, and Eastland is not among them.

A second gap is how hard it works its capital. For every 100 taka of shareholders' money, Eastland earned only around 5 taka of profit last year, which is on the low side next to peers that earned roughly 7 to 17 taka. The one clear positive is alignment: the sponsors and directors own about 41%, so management's own money rides alongside yours.

• Effectively debt-free and cash-rich, so its financial risk is very low — it can ride out a rough year comfortably.
• A long, established track record: listed since 1994 and kept in DSE's category A for companies that hold their meetings and pay dividends on time.
• A reliable 10% cash dividend (1.00 taka per share) every year from 2022 to 2025 — and in 2025 the sponsors even waived their own cash so ordinary shareholders got theirs.
• Solid asset backing: the net worth behind each share is about 21.58 taka, well above the 10 taka face value.
• Strong alignment: sponsors and directors hold about 41% of the company, so management has real skin in the game.

• No growth: profit peaked in 2022 (13.7 crore taka) and has drifted back to about 9.25 crore, leaving profit per share roughly flat — down about 2% over five years.
• A stretched dividend: it pays out close to all of its profit (about 1.00 taka out of 1.10 taka per share), so there is almost no cushion if profit dips.
• Softer cash than profit: day-to-day cash generation (about 6 to 7 crore taka a year) has been running below the profit it reports.
• An auditor flag: the outside auditor added an "Emphasis of Matter" paragraph to the 2025 accounts. The pack does not say what it covers, so it is worth reading the audited statements before relying on the numbers.
• Weaker returns and small size: it earns a lower return on shareholders' money than several peers, and it is a small player in a crowded insurance market.

Eastland Insurance is a steady-income share, not a growth story. It suits a patient investor who mainly wants a regular cash dividend from a safe, debt-free, long-established company, and who is comfortable that the profit behind it has been flat for years rather than climbing.

It is a poor fit for anyone looking for a fast-growing company or a rising earnings trend — the last five years simply do not show that, and several sector peers have grown faster.

The main caveats to sit with before deciding: the profit is not growing, the dividend already uses up nearly all of that profit so it has little room to spare, and the auditor has attached a note to the latest accounts that is worth reading. Weigh those against the safety and the dividend record, and match it to the kind of investor you are.