Brit Insurance Holdings, the UK-based international general insurer and reinsurer, has released a trading update in advance of its annual general meeting.
The key points include:
Gross premiums written by the group during the three months ended 31 March 2007 totalled £388.4m, an increase of 3.9% over the same period in 2006.
Rating development for the London market underwriting centre and the reinsurance underwriting centre have been on average generally static with some modest increases/decreases in certain classes.
Claims experience for the year to date has seen no major catastrophic insured events.
Investment return for the period totalled £34.2m (31 March 2006: £30.9m), an increase of 10.8%.
Group management expenses and finance costs (before bonus provisions) for the period totalled £33.9m (31 March 2006: £31.2m).
Acquisition costs for the period were £69.2m (or 23.2% of net earned premium) (31 March 2006: £61.1m and 24.0%).
The overall outlook remains positive though market conditions remain challenging in the UK, with the overall trend towards a softening market.
