UK insurance firm anticipates more than £500m profit

A national financial services company has announced today that it will post higher than expected profit in its final 2019 results.

Admiral Group, which offers insurance across a number of sectors, expects to post a profit before tax for 2019 in the range of £510m to £540m, approximately 6 to 13 per cent higher than 2018’s result.

The company said that the increase in profit is due to higher than expected reserve releases in UK motor insurance.

It also credited its success partly to clarity over the new ‘Ogden’ rate in July 2019, which it said led to an increase in the number of large claims settling in 2019 compared to recent years.

On the basis of these preliminary results and strong solvency position, the proposed final dividend for 2019 is expected to be in the range of 73 to 78 pence per share.

However, its profitability continued to be impacted by higher levels of claims inflation during 2019 and as a result, Admiral expects its 2019 loss ratio to be higher than recent years.

Despite this, Admiral also announced that due to the unexpectedly high results, all its staff will receive a cash bonus of £500 in the first half of 2020.