“The opportunities are legion.”
Those were the words of chair Robert Childs, who described Hiscox as “in good shape,” when the global specialist insurer released its interim results this morning. The Bermuda-headquartered firm was happy to report a 27% rise in pre-tax profit for the first half of 2018 – from US$129.1 million in the same period in 2017 to this year’s US$163.6 million.
More than half of the abovementioned figure came from Hiscox Retail, which is made up of Hiscox UK & Europe and Hiscox International.
In terms of gross written premium, the period saw an increase of 21% – to US$2.2 billion this time around from last year’s US$1.8 billion. Hiscox said all segments contributed on this front.
“It has been a good start to the year,” commented chief executive Bronek Masojada. “Our investment across the business is driving strong profitable growth in all segments. We are on track to exceed one million retail customers in 2018.”
The Hiscox Group, which has customers worldwide and employs more than 2,700 people in 14 countries, also announced an interim dividend per share of 13.25 cents – a 5% climb from the 2017 interim dividend.
As for the company’s outlook, Childs explained where the prospects lie.
“The London Market business is navigating the market and finding opportunities in areas such as flood, cyber, and general liability,” said the Hiscox chair. “In reinsurance we have grown and are achieving good margins. The retail businesses, in their respective regions and product lines, continue their good momentum.”
Childs added that the group is “working hard to transform much” of its underlying infrastructure.
“This includes the impact of Brexit, General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), New York Cybersecurity Regulation, IFRS 17 accounting standards, the Insurance Distribution Directive (IDD), and the updated Senior Managers and Certification Regime (SF&CR),” he noted.
The chairman, who said “it’s going to be a busy second half” and thanked employees for their efforts so far, continued: “The finance and IT infrastructure projects we are undertaking across the group, especially in our retail businesses, position us favourably as we look to grow market share in key lines and geographies according to the size of the opportunity ahead of us.”
