Lloyd's has earmarked a further £15m investment for the Kinnect project during 2005.

Lloyd's chief executive Nick Prettejohn, announcing Lloyd's £1.36bn profit for 2004, said that he did not expect "Kinnect to make a profit for another few years" but hoped it would breakeven.

"This investment is part of the phased expenses of the project, it does not mean any uptake of capital from Lloyd's," he added.

Lloyd's has reduced its capacity by 10% for the 2005 account compared to 2004. Prettejohn would not be drawn on what lines of business could see major rate deterioration during 2005 and 2006 but said that "big ticket property rates" had fallen over the past 12 months and would remain competitive.

Lloyd's finance director Luke Savage said that its profits were £324m lower due to the recent arbitration settlement with Swiss Re and other insurers over the WTC claims dispute.

He also said that Lloyd's estimated exposure to the Asian Tsunami disaster was less than £100m.

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