Specialist insurer Beazley has posted an increase in premium income and an improvement in its combined operating ratio, but a fall profits, for the six months ended 30th June 2022. Profit before tax was approximately £18.5m, down on the £138.8m recorded for the same period last year. Gross premiums written increased by 26% to 32,118.8m (30 June 2021: £1,688m).

The combined ratio of 87% was an improvement of 7 percentage points on the same period last year.

Adrian Cox, chief executive officer at Beazley, said: “We have maintained the momentum of the second half of 2021 with gross premiums increasing by 26% alongside better than expected claims experience.

“A challenging investment environment has impacted profit; however I’m delighted that we have achieved our best combined ratio at a half year since 2015.

“We continue to manage actively for inflation and recession and our estimate for the war in Ukraine remains unchanged. Given the positive experience in the first half of this year we are in a position to update our combined ratio guidance to high 80s for 2022 assuming average claims experience for the second half of the year.”

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