SVB Holdings has abandoned plans for its interim dividend after reporting a loss in the first half of the year.
The company reported a pre-tax loss of £117.5m in the six months ended June, after making a £11.1m profit in the same period last year.
SVB has discontinued loss making liability reinsurance and third party liability operations to focus on professional risks, property, liability and aviation/marine.
The discontinued units lost £37.8m in the first half, and
SVB has taken a £103.6m provision against continuing losses.
The insurer's gross written premium climbed 28% to £289m in the first half, while its combined ratio, from continuing operations, improved 13.9% to 73.5%.
Earnings per share from continuing operations fell 15% to 4.5p, dented by a share sale last year. Net assets fell to 32.7p per share, from 58p last year.
Chief executive Matthew Fosh said: "We were disappointed by the performance of SVB's discontinued units in the first half and the scale of the action needed
to address this.
"We have benefited from continuing rate increases across our business as a whole, particularly in our key specialty segment, and claims experience for the
ongoing business has been generally benign.
"Our continuing business delivered strong results, both in absolute terms and relative to our peers.
"However, our discontinued units continued to show reserve deterioration."
Rating across its book of business continued to strengthen for the first seven months of 2004, SVB said, adding that hurricanes Charley, Frances and Ivan would affect the second half.
"In the absence of unforeseen circumstances and in particular of further catastrophic loss we remain confident about the outlook for the continuing
business for the year as a whole," the company said.
