LONDON (Alliance News) - Irish insurer FBD Holdings PLC Tuesday reaffirmed is guidance on full-year operating earnings - as long as the large claims it is experiencing revert to normal levels, it says.
FBD, which writes car, home, business and farm insurance, said it expect full-year operating earnings per share, a measure based on longer term rates of return, to be in the range of 145 to 155 cents, as long as large claims revert to norm and if there are no "exceptional weather events" in the remainder of the year.
"As previously advised, FBD experienced a small number of very large accident and liability claims (cost greater than EUR1 million) in the early months of 2013. The number of such claims is random and will be very volatile, especially over a short period, but will revert to norm over time. Although that reversion to norm began in the second half, the group has experienced a further small number of such claims and therefore the full-year experience of these claims is likely to be ahead of historic norms," FBD said in a statement.
FBD's gross written premium increased by more than 2% in the first nine months of 2013, an improvement on the 0.7% growth in the first half, while it generated an annualised return on investments of 3.2% over the same period.
The insurer said profit after taxation for the nine months to September is in line with expectations.
Shares in the company were Tuesday quoted at EUR16.30, down 3.4%.
By Samuel Agini; samagini@alliancenews.com; @samuelagini
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