Car insurance specialist Admiral Group (LSE:ADM) PLC (LSE:ADM) has paid a special dividend of 46p following the sale of its price comparison website business.
The company also announced a hefty 63% increase in the interim dividend in its half-year results to 115p from 70.5p a year before, as the company posted a 76% increase in profit before tax from continuing operations.
Profit before tax rose to £482.2mln in the first half of 2021 from £274.4mln the year before on revenue that rose 9% to £1.75bn (2020: £1.6bn).
The customer base rose to 8.02mln from 7.17mln the year before with the number of UK insurance customers jumping 12% to 6.22mln and the number of international insurance customers up 14% at 1.71mln.
The group’s solvency ratio (post-dividend) improved by 12% to 209% from 186% a year earlier.
“I am delighted that we can once again pay a record dividend (which includes a part of the proceeds from the sale our comparison businesses) to our shareholders, including our staff who continued to work hard to provide great service to our customers,” said Milena Mondini de Focatiis, Admiral’s chief executive officer (CEO).
The insurer has paid around 10,000 staff up to £1,800 each under the group’s employee share scheme.
“It’s been a half year of good execution for Admiral. By and large, we’ve done the right things more often and a bit earlier than most,” the CEO said.
“This included adjusting pricing ahead of the market in the UK to reflect shifting pandemic-related claims trends and providing more self-service and digital options to our customers. These actions have rewarded us with double-digit growth in policy numbers in the UK and in international insurance, whilst operating in very competitive markets.
“Another highlight of this half-year is a notably higher level of profit – driven by positive development of prior years in our UK Motor book resulting in increased reserve releases and higher than usual profit commission, as well as lower levels of claims frequency. We also made progress against our long-term strategy, increasing adoption of advanced analytics models and planting new seeds for product diversification,” she added.
Shares in Admiral sailed 2.3% higher to 3,529p in early deals.
We’ve announced our 2021 Half Year results with positive claims experience driving a strong result for the Group.https://t.co/1asUtPQdKs#ADMHY21 pic.twitter.com/lUaxmuqk9F
— Admiral Group (@AdmiralGroup) August 11, 2021