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(Alliance News) - Beazley PLC on Thursday celebrated a year of record profit and premiums, enabling the company to launch a new buyback programme of up to USD325 million.
Beazley is a London-based insurance company, operating across Europe, the US, Asia and Australia.
In 2023, Beazley's pretax profit more than doubled to USD1.25 billion from USD584.0 million a year prior.
Beazley credited its success to its "expertise-led, specialty underwriting", as well as "the clarity of our strategy across platforms, products and geographies".
Insurance written premium's increased 6.8% to USD5.60 billion from USD5.25 billion in 2022.
The group's combined ratio, the sum of its incurred losses and expenses as a percentage of premiums earned, improved to 74% from 82% in 2022. This is line with its February guidance of a ratio in the "mid-70s".
Basic earnings per share nearly doubled to 154.7 cents from 79.0 cents.
The company has also declared a dividend of 14.2 pence per share covering the whole of 2023, payable to shareholders on May 3. This is 5.2% ahead of Beazley's 2022 dividend of 13.5 pence per share.
Looking ahead, Beazley is targeting high-single digit insurance written premium growth for 2024, alongside a low-80s undiscounted combined ratio.
Beazley's 2023 results have enabled the company to launch a share buyback programme of up to USD325 million, which it said serves as a "powerful symbol of our confidence in the company, its business model and the future."
Chief Executive Officer Adrian Cox said: "I am delighted with our record USD1.25 billion profit which enables us to launch a share buyback programme of up to USD325m. The strength of Beazley's expertise-led underwriting and claims management was the driver of the excellent combined ratio we achieved in 2023. We believe that with increased demand for insurance that the accelerating risk environment is creating, as well as an adequate rating environment, we are well positioned to continue successfully growing our business and I remain confident that Beazley will see strong, long-term performance."
Barbara Plucnar Jensen has also been appointed chief financial officer. Jensen previously served as CFO of Tryg AS, a Denmark-based insurance company and the largest provider of general insurance services in the Nordics. Her appointment will take effect on May 1. This follows the resignation of former CFO Sally Lake, announced in August, who held the position for five years.
Shares in Beazley were up 0.3% at 655.00 pence each in London on Thursday morning.
By Hugh Cameron, Alliance News reporter
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