Motor insurance specialist Sabre Insurance Group plc has reported gross written premium of £116m for H1 2026. This is up from the £100.3m achieved in the same period last year. The carrier’s combined operating ratio deteriorated slightly to 85.6% (H1 2025 – 82.6%). Its profit after tax dipped slightly to £17.9m (H1 2025 – £18.9m).

Sabre’s motor policyholders jumped from 199,000 in H1 last year to hit 232,000 this year. This rise saw motor GWP go from £87.4m to £103.4m. Motorcycle policyholders rose by 1,000 to reach 40,000, although GWP increased by £3m to reach £8.9m.

In contrast, Sabre wrote 6,000 taxi policies, down on the 10,000 from the same period last year and its GWP for this sector halved from £7m to £3.7m.

Geoff Carter, chief executive officer of Sabre, said: “Reported profits and margins for the period do not fully reflect the strength of our performance. We continue to write business at our target margins and the reported net insurance margin of £15.7% at the half year simply reflects the normal timing difference between premium written and premium earned, together with the inherent volatility of a six-month reporting period.

“The strong, profitable, premium growth delivered in the first half will ‘earn through’ during H2, driving an improved expense ratio and returning the reported net insurance margin to within our 18% to 22% target range by full year.”