Results round-up

Insurer Beazley reported a 3% jump in full-year profit on Friday as premiums written increased and the company lifted its dividend.

In the year to the end of December, pre-tax profit rose to $293.2m from $284m in 2015 as gross premiums written increased 6% to $2.2bn.

Beazley said it generated a return on average shareholders’ equity of 18% compared to 19% in 2015, against a background of continued sharply falling premium rates for most large risk business.

Meanwhile, earnings per share were up 11% to 35.5p, net investment income improved to $93.1m from $57.6m and the insurer had a combined ratio of 89% versus 87% a year earlier.

Beazley declared a second interim dividend of 7p, up from 6.6p and taking the full-year dividend to 10.5p from 9.9p. The special dividend was lower than the year before, however, at 10p versus 18.4p.

Chief executive Andrew Horton said: "Beazley's performance in 2016 was good across the board. Our increased profits were driven by a higher investment return, but the bedrock of our success remains our underwriting performance, which generated a combined ratio of 89% in 2016 despite highly competitive conditions in many of our markets.

"Overall premium growth doubled to 6% and we were able to develop a number of growth opportunities, particularly in the US, that enabled us to offset areas where market conditions dictated that we cut back."