Lloyd's of London posts jump in first-half underwriting profit

Insurance marketplace Lloyd’s of London said on Thursday that it had taken a £1.1bn hit from the conflict in Ukraine as it posted a jump in its half-year underwriting profit.

In the six months ended 30 June, underwriting profit rose to £1.2bn from £1bn in the same period a year ago. Meanwhile, the combined ratio improved to 91.4% from 92.2%, marking the best underwriting performance since 2015. This was helped by lower expenses and a rise in insurance prices. A combined ratio level below 100% indicates that a company is making an underwriting profit.

The group also said it had set aside £1.1bn for Ukraine-related losses.

"Lloyd’s strong underwriting performance has been driven by our continued focus on portfolio management action, demonstrated by a 1.6 percentage points reduction in the attritional loss ratio (50.5% in HY 2021 reducing to 48.9% in HY 2022)," it said.

"Our focus on sustainable, profitable performance continues through 2022, and will be supported by the implementation of our new, principles-based oversight framework and delivering a differentiated approach to syndicate business planning."