Lloyd's results release as at 30 June 2024
Lloyd's Half Year 2024 results for the market
Lloyd's issued the following press release this morning.
Lloyd's, the world's leading marketplace for insurance and reinsurance, today announced a strong set of results for the first six months of 2024, with an overall profit before tax of £4.9bn (HY 2023: £3.9bn).
The market demonstrated continued discipline through H1 2024, delivering an underwriting profit of £3.1bn (HY 2023: £2.5bn), a £0.6bn increase on the previous year.
Lloyd's continued to support sustainable profitable growth, with gross written premium increasing by 6.5% to £30.6bn (HY 2023: £29.3bn) excluding foreign exchange movements (-2.1%), driven by volume growth (5.0%) and price increases (1.5%).
The market's combined ratio improved year-on-year to 83.7% (HY 2023: 85.2%) - its best interim result since 2007. The underlying combined ratio improved to 80.6% (HY 2023: 81.6%).
The investment return of £2.1bn (HY 2023: £1.8bn) was primarily driven by strong fixed income returns complemented by high growth in equity markets.
The drive to improve performance and reduce the cost of doing business at Lloyd's has resulted in a further 1.7% reduction in the attritional loss ratio to 49.2% (HY 2023: 50.9%), and an improving expense ratio reducing to 34.5% (HY 2023: 35.4%).
Lloyd's maintained a strong balance sheet with a central solvency ratio of 520% (FY 2023: 503%) and market-wide solvency ratio of 206% (FY 2023: 207%), highlighting the market's capital discipline and resilience.
Lloyd's sustainable profitability and resilient capital position were reflected in AM Best's upgrade of the financial strength of the Lloyd's market to A+ (superior) from A (excellent) and the long term issuer credit rating to AA- (superior) outlook stable from 'A+' (excellent); outlook positive.
Lloyd's CEO, John Neal said: "The first half of 2024 has presented a superb set of results for the Lloyd's market which represents a combination of disciplined underwriting, smart organic growth and real strength in the Lloyd's balance sheet. This is good news for both investors in the Lloyd's insurance marketplace and our customers as we continue to support them in an increasingly risky world."
ENDS
There are some interesting slides in the attached presentation available on Lloyds.com.
These are stellar results for Lloyd's to report with the lowest combined ratio for an interim result since 2007. The market expects to write c£57bn of gross premium for the full year and to have a final combined ratio for the year of 90% to 95%. We do expect further growth for 2025 Account as the indicative pre-emptions for 2025 reveal.
At the presentation this morning, John Neal said “We continue to see positive trends across a number of lines, with property classes generally well priced and some attention and focus still needed on casualty classes,” “As a whole, we’re seeing ‘super cycle’ conditions based on a protracted period of stable capital and underwriting conditions.”
The outlook for profitability remains positive with Lloyd's estimating that in a hypothetical repeat of 2017's major losses the market's net combined ratio would be below 95% - in 2017 it was actually 114%.