Sabre sees profit growth in H1 2025 as GWP dips

Sabre Insurance grew its profit before tax by 26.2% in the first half of 2025 despite seeing a small drop in gross written premium (GWP).

In a trading update today (31 July 2025), the insurer revealed that it secured a profit before tax of £25.5m in the six months to 30 June 2025, up from £20.2m in the same period last year.

However, GWP dropped from £125.7m to £100.3m. This came after motor vehicle GWP dropped from £112m in H1 2024 to £87.4 in the first half of this year.

While motorcycle rose slightly from £5.6m to £5.9m year-on-year, taxi dropped from £8.1m to £7m.

Sabre said it was “continuing to follow our long-established strategy of balancing volume and margin in order to maximise absolute profit and returns and have continued to write comfortable levels of business despite continuing soft market conditions”.

And following price reductions across the market in 2024 and early 2025, price decreases appear to have slowed or stopped in recent months.

“[This supports] our view that premium increases should return in H2 2025,” Sabre said.

“We are well placed to return to growth as market conditions improve.”

Geoff Carter, chief executive at Sabre, added: “I am very pleased with our position at the halfway point of the year. We have continued to write measured but healthy volumes of business at our target loss ratios through the continued soft part of the market pricing cycle.

“We have maintained cautious claims inflation assumptions and focusing on margins, not volumes, will help protect us against any external macro shocks. This also positions us well to resume strong growth as the market cycle turns, which we still anticipate being later this year.”

Ambition 2030

Looking ahead, Sabre said that it “remains confident in our ability to deliver at least £80m of profit before tax in 2030”.

This forms part of the insurer’s Ambition 2030 strategy, which is a strategic plan focused on driving growth and delivering sustainable returns by leveraging existing strengths and technological enhancements.

Carter said: “We have continued to make good progress towards our Ambition 2030 targets – in particular, we were pleased with the launch of our direct motorcycle product which went to market on schedule and has delivered encouraging early results.

“I expect us to begin testing of differentiated car insurance rates in H2, in-line with the timeline set out at our December 2024 Capital Markets Event.

“We have ended the first half of the year in a strong capital position and our first share buyback programme is progressing well. Our interim dividend is double that paid in 2024.

“We remain confident of delivering a strong profit in 2025, in-line with 2024, and an attractive dividend. Sabre is well placed to achieve strong levels of absolute profit growth in the years ahead – delivered both by our margin over volume strategy and Ambition 2030 initiatives and targets.

“This will underpin our commitment to sustainable and attractive total shareholder returns.”