7th May 2015 07:03
LONDON (Alliance News) - esure Group PLC Thursday said it increased motor gross written premiums in the first quarter of 2015 and made some progress on its pricing.
Competition among motor insurers in the UK has been extremely tough, driving down the premiums paid by customers and putting pressure on participants.
esure said total gross written premiums increased to GBP130.7 million in the three months ended March 31, compared with GBP123.5 million in the corresponding quarter of the prior year. In-force policies increased to 1.971 million from 1.962 million at the same stage of the prior year. Additional services revenue was down 1.2% to GBP23.4 million.
Motor gross written premiums increased to GBP110.1 million from GBP102.7 million, while home gross written premiums fell to GBP20.6 million from GBP20.8 million.
"The motor rating environment remained competitive during Q1 with the market rating indices reporting that rates were slightly soft in the period, with no sign yet of an upward turn. Despite this backdrop we have been able to implement small rate increases across the portfolio and the targeted motor underwriting actions that we outlined at the time of our 2014 preliminary results in March have enabled us to deliver some growth in gross written premiums and in-force policies," Chief Executive Stuart Vann said in a statement.
Vann said that claims inflation is hurting the wider motor market, noting the continuation of an "upward trend" in the frequency of small personal injury claims seen in the second half of 2014. Those developments could be good for the industry, he suggested.
"This, along with many other factors, we believe will eventually cause the market rating environment to improve," Vann said.
"Our outlook remains unchanged for 2015 in that we expect the combined operating ratio trend in 2014 to continue into 2015 largely reflecting ongoing claims inflation," Vann added.
By Samuel Agini; [email protected]; @samuelagini
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