Hastings’ share price falls 4.4% as its claims costs were higher than expected due to unexpected weather
Hastings has seen a fall in its share price after admitting the icy weather conditions had hiked up claims costs more than it expected.
At the opening of trading, the share price fell dramatically from 274p to 245.14p, a fall of just over 10%. But as the day went on, it recovered and currently sits at 267.4, which is still 4.4% lower than at open.
In its Q1 results until 31 March 2018, Hastings said “The snow and icy weather conditions in the quarter resulted in higher claims costs than expected.”
Despite the rising claims costs as a result from the Beast from the East, Hastings said it was still confident of delivering a calendar year loss ratio of between 75-79%.
Net revenue increased by 18% to £735.6m for the 12 months to March 2018 (2017: £622.0m) and increased by 12% to £184.5m for the first quarter (2017: £164.5m).
Gross written premiums rose 16% to £942.2m for the 12 months ended March (2017: £812.7m) and were up 5% to £226.0m for the 3 months ended 31 March 2018 (31 March 2017: £214.7m), driven by average written premium increases, along with increases in customer numbers.
Chief executive Toby van der Meer said: ”We have continued to deliver profitable trading performance in the first quarter and the board is pleased to confirm that Hastings is well positioned to continue its profitable growth, and we remain on track to deliver in line with all of our targets during 2019”.
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