Almost £4.9m-worth of
Beazley shares were cashed in by its board members, following a recent surge in the LSE-listed insurer’s stock price.
Five executives at the firm sold share options, offloading more than 1.2m shares in the business in total, a report from
This is Money claims.
Beazley CEO Andrew Horton sold 352,527 shares at an average price of 424.336p, totalling almost £1.5million. Chief underwriting officer Neil Maidment and head of marine Clive Washbourn, each sold 236,928 shares.
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Some of the shares were part of a deferred share award scheme while the rest were part of the company's long-term incentive plan, according to the report.
Shares have posted a strong performance so far this month – Beazley saw its highest-ever close on February 07, at 437.10p. This follows its announcement of strengthening its US underwriting team for small to mid-sized businesses, expanding its specialty lines presence in Canada, and hiring more staff in Ireland.
The company reported a 3% rise in full-year pre-tax profits to $293.2m for 2016, from the previous year’s $284m. This beat analyst estimates of $243m.
Beazley said there are significant opportunities to grow in the US and, on a smaller scale, in other markets outside London. As of February 16, its stock was up some 8.6% since the year began.
“Beazley’s performance in 2016 was good across the board,” said Horton. “Our increased profits were driven by a higher investment return, but the bedrock of our success remains our underwriting performance, which generated a combined ratio of 89% in 2016 despite highly competitive conditions in many of our markets.”
“Overall premium growth doubled to 6% and we were able to develop a number of growth opportunities, particularly in the US, that enabled us to offset areas where market conditions dictated that we cut back,” he added.
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