Insurer Hiscox back in profit after tough 2011

The FTSE-250 company, whose insurance spans oil refineries to fine art and vintage cars, made a pre-tax profit of £125.8m compared with a loss of £85.6m a year earlier.

Analysts had expected a profit of £109m, according to a company poll.

Hiscox, a major provider of event cancellation insurance, sidestepped some £10m of losses in the first half of this year by refusing to cover events including the Badminton horse trials that were abandoned due to heavy rain, chief executive Bronek Masojada said.

Outgoing chairman Robert Hiscox, said the results marked “a welcome return to our profitable course after the battering we and the insurance industry received from Mother Nature last year”.

In the first half of 2011, insurers paid out billions in claims after Japan and New Zealand were struck by major earthquakes.

Severe tornadoes in the United States and heavy flooding in Thailand made 2011 as a whole the industry’s second-costliest natural catastrophe year on record, with insured losses totalling $116bn, according to reinsurer Swiss Re.

The company, which insures wealthy individuals in continental Europe, has prepared for a potential breakup of the euro zone, Mr Masojada added.

“If there is a change of currency the computers are ready to switch over to whatever currency emerges,” he said.

Bermuda-based Hiscox has an office in Toronto Square, Leeds.