Royal & SunAlliance (R&SA) today announced first quarter pre-tax operating profits of £160m...
Royal & Sun Alliance (R&SA) today announced first quarter pre-tax operating profits of £160m, a 95% increase on the same period last year.
Profits after tax were £122m, £44m higher than for the same period last year.
Net written premiums were £1.5bn, a 25% increase on £1.2bn for the same period last year.
The company's combined operating ratio also improved to 91.2% in the company's ongoing business, compared with 94.3% in the same period last year.
R&SA put much of the improvement down to control of costs and annualised savings of £200m with a target of £270m by 2006.
The UK business recorded a combined operating ratio of 94.3% compared to 98.2% in the same period in 2004. UK underwriting profits also improved sharply from £2m in the first quarter last year up to £33m for the first three months of 2005.
Chief executive Andy Haste said: “These results have been achieved while continuing to strengthen the group's reserves and after absorbing a number of large losses during the quarter.”