Insurer RSA has today announced its 2016 results, revealing a strong year that saw record underwriting profit and strong operating profits.
RSA Group made an underwriting profit of £380m in 2016, up 73% from the previous year, despite net written premiums dropping slightly from £6.4bn from £6.8bn, the preliminary results show.
The UK delivered its best underwriting result in over a decade at £123m, which the firm said was underpinned by improving attritional loss ratios.
Successes in the UK were driven by delivery from RSA’s performance improvement programme despite a “competitive landscape,” the report said.
RSA’s Group operating profit was up 25% to £655m, beating a company forecast of £626 million, and was £259m in the UK.
Underlying earnings per share (EPS) were up 42% at 39.5p, compared to 27.8p in 2015.
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“In 2016 RSA took major strides forward, moving seamlessly from ‘successful turnaround’ to organic outperformance. Our improvements are both strategic and operational. They are delivering high quality sustainable results,” RSA Group chief executive, Stephen Hester, said in a release.
Hester said that while industry and financial conditions will remain tough, the firm’s ambition now is to “drive its performance towards ‘best in class’ levels.”
“We plan to outperform through continuing self-help measures on customer service, underwriting and costs,” he added.
Hester told a media call earlier today that RSA shareholders were “benefiting significantly from not having sold to Zurich,” following a failed plan in 2015 by Zurich to buy RSA for £5.6 billion, a Reuters report said.
The 2016 results outperformed analyst expectations and led to a surge in the FTSE share price this morning of more than 3%.
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