Insights
Beazley Q3 2023 trading statement
Posted 07/11/2023 – Quick takes
Beazley plc has released its Q3 2023 results for the period ending 30th September 2023.
Main highlights from the statement:
- Insurance written premiums have increased by 9% to $4,325m (Q3 2022: $3,978m)
- Net insurance written premiums have increased by 26% to $3,532m (Q3 2022: $2,800m)
- Premium rate increase on renewal business of +5% (Q3 2022: +17%)
- Investment return of $202m or +2.1% (Q3 2022 loss of $99m or -3.6%)
Adrian Cox, Chief Executive Officer, said:
“We have taken advantage of the opportunities in the property market this year with our Property Risks division growing 63% as rates increased by 24%. In the Cyber Risks division we continue to experience sustained, demand led growth. We remain committed to disciplined underwriting and have delivered a level performance in Specialty Risks despite significant dislocation in the D&O market. The insurance business is cyclical and market conditions are evolving quickly. We have chosen to exercise underwriting discipline meaning growth to date is less than we had planned at the start of the year. However, our agile underwriting and the strength of our platform strategy means we have delivered profitable growth to date and our claims experience is better than anticipated. With sustained discipline and agility in our underwriting I look forward to reporting a strong profit at year end.”
The group’s GWP and rate changes for Q3 2023 are as follows:
Source: Beazley
The group’s performance for Q3 2023 by business division are as follows:
Beazley’s claims experience this year has also been positive with claims experience year to date, better than expected, even though ransomware attacks have increase in number.
Alpha comment
This was again a strong quarterly statement from Beazley. Although the outlook for Beazley at the beginning of this year looked a little more attractive, rates, premium growth and investments are still very positive. Beazley is also continuing to take advantage of the opportunities within the market particularly in the property class where increases of +24% have been enjoyed, whilst also monitoring and taking underwriting action for classes such as D&O which have been more challenging, in rating terms. Such property growth has the potential for the portfolio to become imbalanced, but Adrian Cox confirmed that this was being considered by Beazley. The year to date claims experience for Beazley has been better than expected which is very encouraging. This suggests that the growth achieved has not been at the expense of underwriting discipline. Furthermore, the 26% growth in net written premiums seems sensible as Beazley has bought less reinsurance, retaining more net risk as market conditions are more favourable (note that adoption of IFRS 17 accounting has exacerbated the growth to some extent). We look forward to the final end of year result which, at this stage, look to be promising for the plc and, in turn, for members of syndicates 623, 6107 and 5623.
