Royal & Sun Alliance profits up 30%
Insurer Royal & Sun Alliance posted a 30% rise in operating profits to £100m (€148.8m) today but said more remained to be done on its restructuring programme.
The insurer said its performance during the first quarter to March 31 had been good, with the best news coming from its ongoing businesses and the continued progress with its restructuring.
Last year was a period of radical change for R&SA in which it raised £960m (€1.4bn) through a rights issue and took steps to focus on its UK, Scandinavian and Canadian operations.
Cost-cutting job cuts took the group’s headcount down to about 29,000.
Chief executive Andy Haste said the group continued to restructure and rebuild the business, but more remained to be done.
“While the process will continue to be challenging, we now have the right team and the right strategy,” he said.
“We’re focused on what we have to do to de-risk and improve the operational performance of the business.”
In March, R&SA said it had improved bottom-line full-year losses to £146m (€217m), from a £953m (€1.4bn) deficit in 2002.
The group said today that it had made a quarterly profit after taxation of £66m (€98m) against a £9m (€13.4m) loss for the same three months in 2003, although general business net premiums dropped to £1.2bn (€1.8bn) from £1.9bn (€2.8bn) previously.
R&SA said it had seen a strong performance in its Scandinavian operations and a significant improvement in its Canadian business following “remedial action”.
But it said its US result was challenging.
The group saw a strong result in its non-standard car insurance business, but said that a planned reduction in premiums and expenses elsewhere in the business had adversely affected the first quarter result and “would continue to do so in the short term”.
