Chesnara Share News (CSN)

March 29 (Reuters) - Chesnara Plc, aninsurance-focused takeover specialist, reported on Thursday asurge in full-year pretax profit, driven by strength in itsdomestic business and gains from its acquisition of Legal &General's Dutch insurance business.

Chesnara, which mainly buys life insurance funds closed tonew customers, said IFRS pretax profit rose to 89.6 millionpounds ($126.2 million) in 2017, from 40.7 million pounds a yearearlier.

"We now have sufficient scale and presence in both the UKand the Netherlands to continue our focus on acquisitionactivity in those territories. We also remain open minded aboutnew territories," Chesnara said in a statement.

Chesnara reported a Solvency II ratio of 146 percent, upfrom 144 percent last year. The lower the ratio, the greater thechances of a company defaulting on its obligations.

The results were better than anticipated, said PanmureGordon analyst Barrie Cornes.

"Whilst we knew about the positive impact of the acquisitionof L&G Nederland ... we had not anticipated the positiveeconomic drivers that extended H1 performance into H2."

Economic value earnings (EcV) net of tax rose to 139.5million pounds in the year, from 72.5 million pounds a yearearlier, while cash generation excluding the impact of the Dutchacquisition rose to 83.9 million pounds, from 36.5 millionpounds in 2016.

EcV is a metric adopted by European insurance companies tomake their results more meaningfully comparable and provides alonger-term measure of value generated during a period.

($1 = 0.7101 pounds)(Reporting by Noor Zainab Hussain in Bengaluru; Editing byAmrutha Gayathri)