25th Apr 2006 07:01
BRIT Insurance Holdings PLC25 April 2006 Press Release25 April 2006 BRIT INSURANCE HOLDINGS PLC AGM STATEMENT Brit Insurance Holdings PLC ("Brit" or "the Company"), the UK-basedinternational general insurer and reinsurer, releases the following tradingupdate in advance of its Annual General Meeting, to be held later today: "Brit has made a positive start to the year which is in line with ourexpectations. Gross Premiums written to the end of March 2006 totalled £373.9 million comparedwith £366.1 million for the previous year. As previously stated this year Britis writing less catastrophe exposed business which arises in our ReinsuranceUnderwriting Centre and London Market property and marine accounts. Thereforeit is pleasing to report that the reduction in aggregate exposures by acombination of non-renewal of certain risks, smaller lines and reduced limitsfor catastrophe risks in these classes has been more than compensated by volumeand price increases overall in the rest of our business. We are delighted that the anticipated strong growth in premium income of ourLondon Market Underwriting Centre has been achieved and our UK business hasperformed in line with our premium expectations. This is shown in the table below: 3 months ended 3 months ended 12 months ended 31 December 2005 31 March 2006 31 March 2005 £m % £m % £m %London MarketAccident and Financial 55.7 14.9% 40.5 11.2% 188.4 15.8%Aerospace 7.8 2.1% (0.9) -0.3% 11.1 0.9%Casualty 34.5 9.2% 27.9 7.6% 128.0 10.6%Marine 34.9 9.3% 36.8 10.0% 115.7 9.6%Property 28.4 7.6% 35.5 9.7% 115.4 9.6% 161.3 43.1% 139.8 38.2% 558.6 46.5%ReinsuranceProperty 61.3 16.4% 78.2 21.4% 140.8 11.6%Marine 6.1 1.6% 5.6 1.5% 12.0 1.0%Casualty 55.1 14.7% 35.6 9.7% 73.3 6.1%Aviation 2.7 0.7% 10.0 2.7% 39.4 3.3%Cat Retro & Other 2.1 0.6% 18.5 5.1% 63.3 5.3% 127.3 34.0% 147.9 40.4% 328.8 27.3%UKProperty 15.7 4.2% 13.1 3.6% 70.3 5.8%UK Casualty - EL/PL 38.6 10.4% 30.6 8.3% 111.8 9.3%UK Casualty - Liability 6.6 1.8% 8.8 2.4% 36.6 3.0%Motor 20.0 5.3% 23.0 6.3% 89.9 7.5%Package and other 3.4 0.9% 2.9 0.8% 9.3 0.8% 84.3 22.6% 78.4 21.4% 317.9 26.4% Other 1.0 0.3% - 0.0% (2.7) -0.2% Group Totals 373.9 100.0% 366.1 100.0% 1,202.5 100.0% In general, premium rates and terms and conditions remain healthy although, aspredicted, the UK market remains competitive. We are pleased that the averagerenewal retention for the first quarter improved to 85.5%, compared with 84.0%in the same period in 2005. Claims experience for the year to date has been within our expectations, with nomajor catastrophic insured events. Our prior year reserves overall havecontinued to prove robust and stable. In addition investment return andoperating expenses have performed as expected. We continue to explore the potential for establishing a catastropheretrocessional "sidecar" vehicle and will provide a further market update in duecourse. We remain positive for the future and continue to believe that Brit is on trackto meet both its near term and five year growth plans." -Ends- Enquiries:Dane Douetil, Brit Insurance Holdings PLC 020 7984 8500David Haggie, Haggie Financial 020 7417 8989Peter Rigby, Haggie Financial 020 7417 8989 This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock ExchangeRelated Shares:
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