Insurance provider’s profits hit by natural disasters
Hiscox, the listed insurance provider with bases in York and Leeds, has seen its pre-tax profits fall to $53.1m (£41.4m) from $135.6m (£105.7m) in its latest set of full year results.
The business also recorded $4,030.7m worth of gross premiums written in 2019, compared to $3,778.3m the previous year.
Group profits were hit by large catastrophe events, with $165m (£128.7m) reserved for Hurricane Dorian and Typhoons Faxai and Hagibis, in addition to $25m (£19.5m) of reduced fees and profit commissions.
Hiscox UK and Hiscox Europe are said to have generated good profits, driven by a strong performance in small business insurance.
And the company added 180,000 retail customers in 2019, taking its total to 1.2 million globally – including more than 450,000 direct and partnerships customers.
Bronek Masojada, chief executive officer, Hiscox, said: “Our strategy of balance, between big-ticket lines and our more steady retail earnings, provides resilience and opportunity.
“Our growing Retail profits and strong investment return has enabled us to weather a third consecutive year of storms. We are investing for growth as we look to capture the many opportunities we see ahead.”
Hiscox’s report adds: “It is too early to estimate the impact of the Coronavirus. The main areas of potential exposure for Hiscox are event cancellation, travel and personal accident cover and we have received notifications of small claims to date.
“Pandemic is only covered in a very small part of the portfolio where we have very controlled net exposure.
“Some Hiscox UK household customers have unfortunately suffered flooding from the recent storms and our claims teams are working hard to get them back to normal.
“To date we have had 112 claims of which over 50% are reinsured with Flood Re, the Government-backed flood insurance programme. Net losses are well within our expected catastrophe loss budget for the quarter.”
