GWP flat at nine-month stage
Lloyd’s insurer Beazley expects to post a combined ratio below 100% for the full year of 2011 despite catastrophe losses during the year.
The combined ratio guidance factors in the estimated $183m of cat losses sustained in the first half, which remains unchanged, and the impact of third-quarter events, including Hurricane Irene in the US and the Thailand floods.
Beazley wrote $1.35bn (£851.7m) of gross premium in the first nine months of 2011,unchanged from the amount written in the same period last year.
The company has achieved rate rises of 1% across its book, compared with a 2% fall over the same period last year, largely thanks to rate hardening in its reinsurance and property book. The company is expecting further rate increases in property and reinsurance thanks to the introduction of version 11 of risk modeller RMS’s North Atlantic hurricane model.
“While 2011 has been a challenging year for the sector due to first half catastrophe losses, our diverse underwriting portfolio has served us well,” Beazley chief executive Andrew Horton said in a statement. “We continue to make progress in a number of our markets and expect to deliver an underwriting profit in 2011. Although premium rates are still competitive, trading conditions are improving and we are seeing rating increases across a number of lines.”
While gross written premiums were flat at the nine-month stage, Beazley expects premium levels to increase by between 5% and 10% in 2012.
The company said the main areas of increase are catastrophe exposed businesses following 2011 losses and the move to RMS version 11, a full year writing for its new Australian acquisition and growth in specialty lines and political risks and contingency areas.
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