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Customer boost drives Admiral to record first half

Last updated: 09:13 17 Aug 2016 BST, First published: 08:42 17 Aug 2016 BST

a crashed car
The insurance group added nearly half a million customers in the first six months of 2016

British motor insurer Admiral Group PLC (LON:ADM) posted record first half turnover and profits as it added more customers to its books.

Statutory profit before tax for the six months ended 30 June was £189.5mln, 4% up on the first half of 2015, while group turnover increased by 19%, hitting £1.26bln.

“The last six months have shown the enduring, and indeed increasing, strength of the UK business has seen a step change upwards in growth from our developing international business,” said chief executive David Stevens.

Stevens, who took over from co-founder Henry Engelhardt in May, added: “In the core UK business…prices have been rising and we’ve used this opportunity to grow our motor book strongly.”

Admiral – which owns a host of other brands including Confused.com – added nearly half a million new customers in the period which it says aided performance.

As a result of the strong trading, the insurance firm announced it would be hiking its interim dividend by 23% to 62.9 pence per share.

Despite the record half, statutory pre-tax profits slightly missed analysts’ expectations of £191.8mln.

Touching on Brexit, Admiral noted that it does not “foresee a material adverse impact on day to day operations” although it will monitor the situation closely.

It did add however that market volatility in the wake of the ‘leave’ vote led to a 26% decrease in its solvency ratio, but reassured investors that its post-dividend ratio of 180% remained “strong”.

Shares were down 178p, or 7.9%, to 2,077p.

 

--Updates for background info and share price--

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