Amlin reports good start to 2013

Non-life insurance company Amlin has said it had a good start to 2013, with 'healthy' rate increases across a number of key classes underwritten by the group.

The firm also reported catastrophe and large loss activity was benign, and a higher-than-expected return on investment was achieved at 1.8%.

Regionally, the profitability of Amlin London and Amlin Bermuda remained strong and, in line with expectations, the underlying profitability of Amlin UK, Amlin Europe and Amlin Re Europe continued to improve.

Gross written premium for 2013 underwriting was up 7.1% at £1,542.6m for the four months ended April 30th 2013 (April 30th 2012: £1,440.9m), with average renewal rate increases of 1.1% (April 30th 2012: 4.3%) and a strong renewal retention ratio of 88.7% (April 30th 2012: 86.1%).

"Growth in income across 2012 and 2013 is providing positive earnings momentum and changes made to our retrocessional programme for 2013, with lower premiums and significantly lower retentions, are expected to further increase reinsurance margins," Amlin said.

"Amlin has made a positive start to 2013 with improvement in performance across all key areas of the business. We continue to benefit from the diversity of our portfolio, which gives Amlin exposure to favourable market conditions across a range of insurance and reinsurance classes. The group is well capitalised and in a strong position to exploit further opportunities for profitable growth."

The share price climbed one per cent to 438.30p by midday Thursday.

NR