Amlin (AML) was hit with £32.2m of catastrophe claims mainly as a result of heavy flooding in mainland Europe and, while these losses were relatively modest, the previous first-half recorded no losses at all. Even so, higher premium rates helped to lift underwriting profits 3 per cent to £158m, while the combined ratio (of claims to premium income) only deteriorated by one percetange point to a still highly profitable 85 per cent.
IC TIP:
Hold
at
392p
However, while investment returns delivered a creditable annualised return of 2.8 per cent, this was down on the previous year, which meant that investment income slipped from £82.1m to £64.7m and largely explains the profit shortfall in the reported numbers in our table.