The Middlesea Group has registered a pre-tax profit of €3.4 million in the first six months of the year, the company’s interim results show, a significant improvement on the comparative figure for 2009 on local operations of €0.9 million.
The results show that the group made a profit after taxation of €3.2 million compared to a loss of €19 million in the same period last year. A company statement said the group results reflect a major re-focus of strategy directed at local business following the de-recognition of the Italian subsidiary Progress Assicurazioni SpA in 2009.
“The technical results of the holding company generated a positive result of €1.33 million as compared to €1.53 million the previous year, whilst the results of the associate company, Middlesea Valletta Life Assurance Co Ltd, contributed an improved result of €2.6 million during the period, as compared to a loss of €0.3 million in the comparative period for 2009,” it said.
Anne Marie Tabone, chief operations officer stated that Middlesea Insurance p.l.c. is going through a period of consolidation and reorganisation, and continues to maintain a leading role in the domestic market, with an increased volume of premium written, which generated a satisfactory return to the group.
Middlesea Insurance plc registered an increase in premium written of 3.2 per cent during this reporting period, when compared with the 2009 business written in Malta and Gibraltar. Further strengthening was registered in the gross technical reserves of the company, which increased by 7.4 per cent during the six-month period to €57.19 million.
The first six months of 2010 saw a very strong performance by the associate Middlesea Valletta Life Assurance Co. Ltd, both in the volume of premium written and its profitability. Middlesea Valletta has seen a sharp rise in total business written from €50.11 million up to June 2009 to €74.19 million in 2010, an increase of 48 per cent.
With an investment portfolio in excess of €992 million, the investment return of this company has also reflected the more positive sentiments experienced in the financial markets. The contribution towards the group’s result for the six months up to June 30 was a positive €2.61 million, as compared with a loss of €0.32 million for the same period last year.
Joseph F.X. Zahra, chairman of the group, emphasised that Middlesea will “continue to seek improved profitability over the coming months, in line with the new strategy of focus on the Maltese market as its main core operation”.
Despite the current very keen competition within the Maltese insurance market, Mr Zahra said that the group “looks forward to the further consolidation of Middlesea Insurance plc as the leading provider in the local insurance market, and to providing our policyholders with a range of innovative products together with an improved level of service”.
Mr Zahra underlined the fact that the first six months of the year “have yielded the desired improved results, and we look forward to the next half of the year with cautious optimism, as we seek to provide sustainable results in a market which is cyclical and dependant on the risks necessarily associated with the business of insurance”.