Pre Tax Profit ?2 Aug 2016 08:31
Pre Tax Profit is down but special divi to be payed ? Any idea which way will SP will go today ?
Direct Line Insurance Group PLC on Tuesday said pretax profit declined in the first half of 2016 due to lower investment income and claims recoverable from reinsurers, as gross written premiums increased and it declared a special dividend.
The FTSE 100 home and motor insurer said pretax profit for the six months to June 30 was GBP298.5 million, down from GBP315.0 million a year earlier. Direct Line said insurance claims recoverable from reinsurers produced a GBP29.4 million loss in the first half, compared to a GBP73.0 million gain a year earlier.
Investment income, meanwhile, declined to GBP92.7 million from GBP111.5 million a year before.
Gross written premiums in the first half grew 3.9% year-on-year in the half to GBP1.61 billion from GBP1.55 billion, driven by premium rates rising 9.5%. The rate rise was offset by an overall decline in in-force policies in the half, down 2.7% to 15,736.
Direct Line declared an interim dividend of 4.9 pence per share, up from 4.6p a year before, and declared a special interim dividend of 10.0p.
"I am pleased with our results over the first half of 2016, as we delivered an excellent performance against a very strong comparator from the previous year," said Paul Geddes, Direct Line's chief executive.
"Although there remains a range of uncertainties in the macro-economic environment, we gain confidence from the strength of this performance, the transformation of the business and the approval of our partial internal model," he added
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