Beazley PLC on Thursday reported sharply higher half-year profit, thanks to a positive results from underwriting, and said it sees more business opportunities in cyber risk insurance.
Shares were up 12% to 715.50 pence on Thursday morning in London. The wider FTSE 100 index was down 1.0%.
Beazley is a London-based specialist insurance underwriter, managing six Lloyd’s of London syndicates. It said pretax profit nearly doubled to $728.9 million in the six months that ended June 30 from $336.4 million a year before.
Insurance written premiums rose by 6.9% to $3.12 billion from $2.92 billion a year before, and Beazley’s combined ratio improved to 77% from 84%. Any combined ratio below 100% means a provide on underwriting, so the lower the better.
As a result, Beazley said its insurance service result increased by 63% to $558.0 million from $342.2 million.
‘Expertise in underwriting and active risk selection are key drivers of this strong result, even as the rating environment is moderating,’ commented Chief Executive Officer Adrian Cox.
Net assets per share and net tangible assets per share both increased by 34% from a year before, to 504.7 pence and 483.1p, respectively, as of June 30.
The insurer said it was tested by the recent global IT outage caused by a faulty software upgrade by cyber security firm CrowdStrike Holdings Inc.
‘When faced with the world’s largest ever IT outage, Beazley’s approach to underwriting cyber risk was tested and proved to be highly resilient,’ Cox said. ‘We see opportunities in the remainder of the year and are confident in delivering on our high single-digit growth guidance.’
Beazley also improved its 2024 guidance for its combined ratio to about 80%.
Beazley declared no interim dividend, unchanged on a year before. However, it said the $325 million share buyback that it announced back in March is on track to complete by the end of the year.
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