Beazley Reveals Impact Of Coronavirus On First-half Results

However, in brighter news for the business, Beazley is bolstered as it enters the second half of the year by the capital raise of $292.6 million which it received in May. Through this additional capital and rate momentum, Beazley believes that it will be able to maintain low double digital top line growth by the end of 2020.

Discussing these results, Beazley’s CEO Andrew Horton noted that the specialty insurer has achieved strong premium growth of 12% in the first half of the year with three of its seven divisions achieving double digit growth. Rates on renewals continue to increase across the market, he said, with average rate increases of 11% seen across our business as a whole.

“Our investments returned 1.4% for the first six months against the backdrop of a volatile investment market,” Horton noted. “The first half of 2020 was defined by COVID-19 and claims arising from the pandemic have driven the combined ratio to 107%, with Beazley recording a loss before tax of $13.8m. Despite this we expect a combined ratio of around 100% should be achievable for the full year."