Profits up at Argus as Bermuda healthcare acquisitions drive up fee income
Argus Group Holdings has reported a comprehensive profit of $30.7 million for its fiscal year 2021, compared to $3.6 million in the prior year.
While end-of-year net earnings were down to $10.1 million from $14.2 million in the prior year, due mainly to market volatility in the annuity business, this volatility was partially offset by the significant increase in other comprehensive income during the year, reflecting improvements in capital markets during the second half of 2020.
Argus reported a combined ratio for the property and casualty and health insurance businesses of 70.4 percent for fiscal year 2021, compared with 80.8 percent for 2020.
Its combined fee income was $39.7 million, an increase of $14.5 million, driven by the acquisition of two medical practices in Bermuda in June 2020 and a brokerage business in Malta in September 2019.
Reduced claims activity, reflecting pandemic-related changes in travel and healthcare patterns, resulted in a decrease in payments from $95 million to $80 million, as a result of which Argus offered a premium rebate to all qualifying health clients.
Argus also disclosed that, from July 1, 2021, it will initiate the discretionary repurchase of up to 415,000 shares over the next year at market prices on the Bermuda Stock Exchange. It also declared a dividend of ten cents per share for shareholders of record as of July 28, 2021, payable on August 27, 2021.
Alison Hill, group chief executive officer at Argus, said the economic, social and environmental upheavals of the last 12 months had not distracted Argus from its goal of building a profitable, sustainable global company with an inclusive, engaging culture.
“We implemented a new organisational structure that further empowers our regional businesses; leveraged the acquisition of Bermuda’s two largest medical practices to build an integrated healthcare model; laid the groundwork for product and geographic diversification from our European base in Gibraltar; and continued the ongoing digitisation of many of our products and services,” she said.
