Admiral 'going like a freight train'

2nd Mar 2011 07:36

Admiral made more money than ever before in 2010, driven by the core UK motor insurance business.Profit before tax accelerated to £266m in 2010 from £216m the year before on turnover up 47% to £1.58bn as premiums rose. UK car insurance profits were up 33% at £275.8m as the firm enjoyed trading conditions more favourable than any time since 2000. The non-UK car business lost £8m.The firm will be able to charge even more from December 2012 following yesterday's ruling by European judges that insurers cannot offer lower premiums to women solely on the basis of gender.Vehicle count grew 32% to around 2.5m vehicles covered by Admiral brands, making the firm one of the top three UK private motor insurers, with 10% of the UK market. "The big success was the UK motor insurance business," an excited chief executive Henry Engelhardt said. "It's a snowball going like a freight train. Downhill. Wow!""Throughout 2010 we experienced a flood of new business."The confused.com website had a "tough" year. Revenue fell 10% to £71.8m and profit slumped 34% to £16.9m, but early indications are that the new TV ads are going down well.There's a final dividend of 35.5p a share, giving a full-year payout of 68.1p.