Chaucer’s profits up 300%+

Chaucer saw premium income rise nearly 40% helped by currency changes and saw profits rise more than 300%.

Financial highlights (2008 in brackets)

• Gross written premiums up 38.2% to £491.0m (£355.3m)
• On a constant currency basis, gross written premiums up 18.4%
• Profit before tax of £17.0m (£3.9m)
• Profit before tax and foreign exchange adjustments on non-monetary items £52.6m (£3.4m)
• Underwriting profit £28.6m (£6.6m)
• Average premium rate increase of 5.9%
• Combined ratio improved 91.3% (97.2%)

Ewen Gilmour, chief executive officer, said: “The £52.6m profit generated in the first half, before the impact of non-monetary items, was largely the function of an excellent underwriting result and a healthy contribution from our investments as the defensive repositioning of our portfolio realised significant gains.

“The outlook for the second half of the year and 2010 is also positive, with conditions improving in the majority of our markets. We are well-placed, with our strong underwriting focus and diverse business mix, to benefit from this.”