3rd Mar 2016 07:44
LONDON (Alliance News) - Admiral Group PLC on Thursday declared 2015 as "the year of the uncut diamond", as the motor insurer lifted its dividend and reported higher profit.
Pretax profit rose to GBP368.7 million in 2015, from GBP350.7 million the prior year, as net revenue increased to GBP904.8 million from GBP884.6 million and total expenses fell to GBP525.0 million from GBP529.3 million.
Admiral lifted its total dividend for 2015 to 114.4 pence from 98.4p.
"I would describe 2015 as: the year of the uncut diamond. When the year started many people thought it would turn out to be a lump of coal. But no, 2015 was no lumpy coal year," Chief Executive Officer Henry Engelhardt said.
Engelhardt is known for his colourful descriptions of each trading year, having described 2014 as Baked Alaska and 2013 as a baked potato.
"A lot of good things happened in 2015. The work we did on the UK business in terms of rate increases ahead of the market and the continued attention to operational detail amongst other things, all led to an excellent economic outcome. Following on from the success last year of our Italian business, ConTe, which made another small profit in 2015, the break-even result (underwriting year basis) in Admiral Seguros, our Spanish operation, was also a great achievement," Engelhardt said.
By Samuel Agini; [email protected]; @samuelagini
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