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(Sharecast News) - Car insurer Direct Line lifted its interim dividend and declared a special "catchup" payout to make up for cancelling its 2019 disbursement, as it reported a fall in profits.
Pre-tax profit fell 9.5% to £236.4m after £30.4m of bad weather costs and £15m of one-off restructuring costs. Operating profit slipped 3.4% to £264.9m, the company said on Tuesday.
The interim dividend was increased to 7.4p a share from 7.2p a year ago. A special 14.4p-a-share bonus was declared.
Direct Line maintained estimates for coronavirus costs from the first quarter at £25m on travel insurance and £10m for business insurance.
In-force policies fell 1.7% year on year to 14.6m for the half-year, but the firm's combined operating ratio improved by 2.2 percentage points to 90.3%, with anything below 100% indicating a profit.
"For 2020, we reiterate our target of a combined operating ratio of 93% to 95% normalised for weather and anticipate our restructuring costs of £60 million over 2019 and 2020 will be incurred in full as we strive to maximise the opportunity for operational efficiencies," the company said.
19 Oct 2023 17:49
IN BRIEF: Direct Line shareholders approve sale of business to RSA
Direct Line Insurance Group PLC - Bromley, England-based motor and home insurer - Confirms the sale of its brokered commercial insurance business lines to RSA Insurance Ltd, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Intact Financial Corp, has been approved by shareholders at today's general meeting. Expects to receive the initial consideration within five business days, in accordance with the terms of the deal. Explains this will provide a significant uplift to the continuing group's pro-forma solvency capital ratio, and this uplift is expected to be around 45 percentage points.
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