Mother nature gives Hiscox a break, profits up

Hiscox, the FTSE 250 speciality insurer, is thanking its lucky stars for a first six months of the year that saw no major catastrophes, allowing it to turn a loss in 2011 to an impressive profit in 2012.

The company, which is headquartered in Bermuda, wrote gross premiums totalling £906.4m in the six months to the end of June, the figure at the same point last year was £847.5m.

Hiscox certainly has some interesting "lines", its Guernsey division focuses on high net worth individuals and insures against kidnap and ransom. It is expanding coverage in the Middle and Far East.

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Income from people frightened of getting a rather nasty knock on the door helped push profits before tax for the six months to £125.8m against a loss of £85.4m in the prior year.

That loss was exceptional as the world was buffeted by several catastrophes in 2011, including the Japan tsunami and the extreme flooding in Thailand. Nevertheless the outgoing Chairman Robert Hiscox is clearly relieved after the "battering" his firm received from mother nature last year.

Hiscox's key "combined ratio" figure, which divides claim payouts by underwriting income was at 81.7% by the end of June, anything below 100% implies a profit so the figure compares very favourably against the disastrous figure of 116.9% seen last year.

The strong profits and combined ratio have allowed the board to announce an interim dividend of 6p per share, up 17.6% on the prior year.

Hiscox himself is also standing down as Chairman, to be replaced by the group's current Chief Underwriting Officer Robert Childs. This may raise city eyebrows as good practice is for new Chairmen to come in from outside, reinforcing their independence.

Nevertheless, with the net asset value per share rising from 296.3p last year to 339.3p this year, investors may cut Hiscox some slack.

BS