Beazley quarterly premiums up 6% but renewals fall
London-listed insurer Beazley posted a 6% rise in premiums for the first quarter on Thursday, although premium rates on the renewal business fell by 1%.
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Gross premiums written rose to $546m from $516m in the same quarter last year.
Chief executive officer Andrew Horton said: “We managed to offset the impact of the very competitive trading conditions in many of our lines with growth in specialty lines, particularly our cyber related business and life, accident and health where we have been investing.”
“Gross premiums written by our underwriters based in the US grew to $147.9m which represents growth of 36% in this business compared to the first quarter of 2014,” he added.
Investment income for the three months to 31 March, 2015 came in at $42.5m, representing a year-to-date investment return of 1% versus 0.5% last year.
RBC Capital Markets said the results are supportive of the investment case, noting that the reported gross written premiums were ahead of its $520m estimate.
“We continue to believe that Beazley's business mix differentiates them from their property-focused peers and should help to protect underwriting margins in the coming years,” said RBC, which rates the stock at outperform