13th Mar 2019 10:18
LONDON (Alliance News) - Charles Taylor on Wednesday declared a 5% rise in its total dividend for 2018 as revenue saw double-digit growth, although the company sunk to a loss due to one-off costs.
The insurance market professional services provider's statutory pretax loss for 2018 was GBP3.3 million, sinking from a profit of GBP7.4 million the year before. On an adjusted basis, however, pretax profit increased by 48% to GBP22.3 million from GBP15.3 million.
The statutory loss was as a result of one-off expenses incurred by the company, including investments in restructuring and new product development, as well as an impairment of goodwill on Charles Taylor's Owned Life Insurers business.
Revenue for the period grew by 25% to GBP263.6 million from GBP210.8 million the year before, driven by strong performances in all segments, particularly the new InsureTech division.
Charles Taylor's Claims Management business remained as the largest contributor to revenue, growing by 26% to GBP154.2 million.
InsureTech saw the highest rate of growth year-on-year, rising by more than fourfold to GBP17.3 million from GBP4.0 million in 2017. Insurance Management increased by 9.6% to GBP92.1 million.
Charles Taylor declared a final dividend of 8.08 pence per share, bringing the total payout to 11.56p, up 5.0% from 11.01p the year before.
Looking ahead, Charles Taylor said it has made a good start to 2019, with its full-year performance set to be in line with market expectations.
"I am pleased to report significant progress on executing our strategic objectives. This year, we have refined and clarified our growth strategy, making it more understandable to all stakeholders. We have consolidated our existing claims services related capabilities to create a joined-up claims services business with global scale and material growth prospects," said Chief Executive Officer David Marock.
"We are taking forward numerous growth initiatives and our investments are delivering good results overall. We are confident that our strategy will deliver further growth and returns to shareholders," Marock added.
Shares in Charles Taylor were up 3.5% at 196.65 pence on Wednesday.
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