Acquisition boost for Personal Group

The core business remains convalescence, hospital cash and death benefit plans for blue-collar workers. Cash profits here rose by 9 per cent to £9.6m, boosted by an increase in annualised new business premiums to a record £10.2m, around a quarter of which was written with completely new customers. Profits were also lifted by a benign claims environment, with the claims loss ratio barely changed at 27 per cent.

The group moved to extend its footprint with the purchase of employee benefits specialist Lets Connect last March. This company provides technology-enabled products to employees through salary-sacrifice schemes, which has opened up a range of opportunities for cross-selling Personal Group's core product lines. In the nine months since its acquisition, Lets Connect delivered cash profits of £1.4m.

The group is also close to completing the development of Zeus, its digital employee-benefits platform, with initial rollout expected in the coming weeks. This will enable the employees of Personal Group's corporate clients greater and easier access to the benefits available.

Analysts at Cenkos are forecasting adjusted pre-tax profits for the current year of £12m and EPS of 30.8p (from £10.6m and 27.1p in 2014).