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24 July 2014News

Aspen delivers strong quarterly results despite Endurance pressure

Aspen has reported strong results for the second quarter of 2014 as it defends its position from Endurance’s advances in the high profile M&A battle.

Its operating income per share more than doubled to $1.40 for the quarter, compared with $0.63 in the second quarter of 2013. Its overall gross written premiums (GWP) also increased by 13.4 percent to $779.3 million in the second quarter of 2014.

Within its reinsurance segment, Aspen said that growth in catastrophe and other property lines of business had been offset by declines in casualty and specialty lines.

Its GWP for the segment grew by 23.7 percent to $480.9 million, compared with $388.7 million for the prior year quarter.

On the whole, its combined ratio fell by 7 percentage points to 90.1 percent for the second quarter of 2014 compared with 97.1 percent for the second quarter of 2013. As for its reinsurance segment, its combined ratio fell to 75.5 percent in the quarter, compared with 88.9 percent for the second quarter of 2013.

Chris O’Kane, CEO, says: “Aspen’s strong, high-quality results for the second quarter and first half of 2014 demonstrate the benefits of the investments we have made in our business, our operating focus and our successful strategy to manage a dynamic market. The combination of top-line growth, sound underwriting, impressive performance in our reinsurance business and increasing scale in the US insurance platform is driving increases in ROE and book value per share.

O’Kane continues, “Going forward we expect our operating leverage to continue to increase with premiums growing across many lines and at a faster rate than both expenses and allocated capital. Improving operating leverage will drive an increase in ROE which will enable us to continue to enhance shareholder value.”