Lloyd's insurer Hardy Underwriting Group has announced its pretax profit for 2001 was £3.2m, up from a restated profit of £1.6m in 2000.
The group also announced it is to raise £25m before expenses in a placing and open offer in a bid to increase underwriting capacity to £100m in 2003, up from the current capacity of £43m.
It will place 17,095,146 new shares at 146.25 pence per share, on the basis of 96 new ordinary shares for every 101 existing ordinary shares.
The group commented: "The losses being sustained in the market are raising questions about market solvency and the Chairman's Strategy Group proposals may also give grounds for concern, dependent on the level of intrusion in our business envisaged by the franchise arrangements."
However, it added that it remained optimistic nevertheless.
The group also announced that the World Trade Centre loss for its Syndicate 382 has fallen to under 4% of its 2001 stamp capacity.
