Hiscox Post $197.5 Million 1st Half Profit; Childs to Become Chairman in 2013

Bermuda-domiciled Hiscox reported its interim results for the 1st half of 2012. The following are selected highlights from the report, as calculated in dollars; the original report gave the figures in pounds.
1st Half 2012 1st Half 2011
Gross premiums written ———— $1.424 bn $1.311 bn
Net premiums earned ———– $891.566 mn $870.997 mn
Pre-tax profit (loss) —————– $197.516 mn ($134.384 mn)
1st half combined ratio 81.7 percent (116.8 percent in 1st half 2011)
*excludes acquisitions

Chairman Robert Hiscox, who is due to step down from the position in February, 2013, stated: A pre-tax profit of £125.8 million for the first six months of this year is a welcome return to our profitable course after the battering we and the insurance industry received from Mother Nature last year. As ever, I am writing this on the eve of the US hurricane season, but this year we enter it in good shape.”

He also revealed that Robert Childs, currently a board member and Hiscox’ chief underwriting officer as well as chairman of Hiscox USA, has been chosen by the group’s board to succeed him.

Robert Hiscox explained that although the “UK Corporate Governance Code favors an independent chairman,” he nonetheless is in agreement with the “recommendation of the Nominations Committee” as well as “the major shareholders who were consulted.”

He added that the “Board believes that Robert Childs has the strength of character, the commercial experience and the detailed knowledge of our business that will make him an excellent Chairman of the Board. He was the active underwriter of our Lloyd’s Syndicate 33, he then started and built our businesses in Bermuda and the US, and he has recently had an oversight role covering all the underwriting in the Group as Chief Underwriting Officer.”

Source: Hiscox

Topics Profit Loss