Gocompare a hit for Esure first quarter

Insurance group Esure said first quarter gross written premiums rose 15.5% to £151.0m as income from it's Gompare.com website jumped 19% to £36.3m.

Chief executive Stuart Vann said he expected to increase Gocompare.com's full year pre-tax profits by 20%-30%.

In-force policies were up 1.7% in the quarter to 2.036m . Motor gross written premiums rose 17.1% to £128.9m with Home gross written premiums up 7.3% to £22.1m.

Motor in-force policies climbed 1.7% in the quarter to 1.459m, with home in-force policies up 1.9% in the quarter to 0.577m.

Additional Services revenues rose 4.1% to £25.4m, broadly in line with year-on-year policy growth.

Esure said its financial position was strong and it remained well capitalised.

"We are on track to deliver on our guidance for 2016," Vann said.