13th Nov 2013 09:35
LONDON (Alliance News) - Recently listed motor-and-home insurer esure Group PLC Wednesday said it is on track to meet market expectations for the full year, after reporting an increase in gross premiums written in the third quarter. Additional sales revenue, excluding claims income, also saw strong growth as a result of the increase in policy count.
Esure, which listed on the main market of the London Stock Exchange in March, said it wrote GBP161.5 million in gross premiums for the quarter ended September 30, compared with GBP158.8 million for the corresponding period last year. The 1.7% third quarter improvement, however, was lower than the 4.8% increase to GBP427.0 million in the first nine months of the year.
The owner of Sheilas' Wheels, which is focused on providing motor insurance for women, said motor premiums rose by 1.8% in the third quarter, despite high competition in the industry, while esure also saw an improvement in the overall retention of customers in the third quarter.
That said, the insurer was cautious on returning to certain areas of the UK motor market, citing the "personal injury phenomenon", which has seen increasing numbers of fraudulent motor insurance claims. In an April report, the Association of British Insurers described the UK as the "Whiplash Capital of Europe" after finding that whiplash claims alone cost the UK over GBP2.2 billion per year.
Excluding claims income, additional services revenue - which is made up of items such as sales of additional insurance products to motor and home insurance customers, interest and policy administration fees - increased to GBP72.7 million for the first nine months of the year, compared with GBP67.6 million for the corresponding period last year.
"We continue to focus on disciplined underwriting and maintaining our high customer retention rates. This is particularly reflected in the Sheilas' Wheels book where our customers continue to see the benefits from gender-neutral pricing. We also continued cautiously to re-enter certain segments of the motor market that we exited between 2009 and 2011," Chief Executive Stuart Vann said in a statement.
"The estimated cost of the St Jude's Day storm is within the normal range of anticipated weather for the fourth quarter," Vann added.
Shares in the insurer were up 5.5% at 224.00 pence, Wednesday, still below its 290 pence offer price in March.
https://www.abi.org.uk/News/News-releases/2013/04/Brace-Yourself--UK-Is-The-Biggest-Pain-In-The-Neck-In-Europe
By Samuel Agini; [email protected]; @samuelagini
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