Hiscox PLC, the UK insurance group, has announced an improvement in interim results, which it attributed to improved market conditions and its strategy of building a retail business outside the Lloyd's of London market.
For the six months to June, group gross written premium income jumped 45% to £313.1m, from £215.9m during the same period in 2000.
Operating profit rose to £4.8m from £0.9m and pre-tax profit increased to £1.4m from £0.1m.
The group said pre-tax profit was lower than the operating profit because the rise in investment return to £6.2m, from £5.4m, was still lower than the assumed long term rate of return.
Earnings per share improved to 0.7p from 0.1p, but Hiscox said it had decided to defer a dividend payment until the full year results "due to the uncertainty of the exact size of the WTC loss and the probable capital needed to take advantage of future opportunities".
It added it expected the net cost after reinsurance of the WTC attacks to be £20m pre-tax or 10p per share after tax.
