Chaucer’s first half pretax profits more than doubled, rising to £17m from £3.9m in the first half of last year.
Financial highlights
- Profit before tax and foreign exchange adjustments on non-monetary items1 of £52.6m (30 June 2008: £3.4m)
- Profit before tax of £17.0m (30 June 2008: £3.9m)
- Gross written premiums up 38.2% to £491.0m2 (30 June 2008: £355.3m)
- On a constant currency basis, gross written premiums up 18.4%
- Successful defensive rebalancing of the investment portfolio, generating return of £34.6m (30 June 2008: £1.5m), a return on average funds of 2.7% (30 June 2008: 0.2%)
- Interim dividend of 1.3p declared (30 June 2008: 1.8p)
- Post-tax annualised return on equity of 8.6% (30 June 2008: 1.9%) Underwriting highlights
- Strong underwriting performance, generating £28.6m of profit before investment income and the impact of foreign exchange on non-monetary items1 (30 June 2008: £6.6m)
- An average premium rate increase of 5.9% achieved across underwriting portfolio
- Combined ratio improved to 91.3%2 (30 June 2008: 97.2%) supported by more stable claims environment
- Syndicate 1084 capacity increased by 42.5% to £634m for 2009 (2008: £445m)
- Contribution of £2.6m from syndicate participation and management activities (30 June 2008: £2.4m)
Commenting on the results, Ewen Gilmour, Chief Executive Officer, said:
“I am pleased to report an excellent start to 2009. The £52.6m profit generated in the first half, before the impact of non-monetary items, was largely the function of an excellent underwriting result and a healthy contribution from our investments as the defensive repositioning of our portfolio realised significant gains. The outlook for the second half of the year and 2010 is also positive, with conditions improving in the majority of our markets. We are well-placed, with our strong underwriting focus and diverse business mix, to benefit from this.” We are holding an analysts’ meeting at our Head Office at Plantation Place, 30 Fenchurch Street, London at 9:30am today.
