Esure's premiums rise while it benefits from Gocompare.com demerger

9th Nov 2016 08:27

(ShareCast News) - Esure's premiums increased for the year to date, while it also benefited from its November demerger from Gocompare.com, an insurance comparison website.For the nine months ended 30 September, the company said that overall premiums soared 16% and policies rose 6% year-on-year.Gross written premiums increased 15.9% to £499m, compared to the same period last year.Motor gross written premiums rose 18.3% to £430.6m and home gross written premiums were up 3% to £68.4m, while in-force policies climbed 5.7% to 2.105m.Motor in-force policies edged up 7.6% to 1.530m.There was a 1.1% rise in home in-force policies to 575,000, while additional services revenues increased 3.5% to £80.6m.The FTSE 250 company said its financial position is "strong" and the capital base was strengthened as part of the Gocompare.com demerger on 3 November.Chief executive Stuart Vann said: "As a result of our underwriting expertise, focus on customer service, and efficient expense base, we are well placed to take advantage of the current motor market conditions to grow our market share over the coming period and deliver value to shareholders.He said that rates in motor were "favourable" and the company was making progress on strategic initiatives to grow the business in particular, the underwriting footprint expansion and enhanced customer contribution modelling in motor were delivering promising results.In the UK, the market remains "competitive", coupled with the weather costs incurred earlier in the year.Vann added: "We are on track to deliver the outlook for the insurance business provided at the interim results earlier in the year, with premium growth expected to be at the upper end of our guidance of 13-18% driven by our motor book. Assuming favourable market conditions continue, we would expect to continue to see attractive rates of growth in the coming periods."Shares in Edure were up 1.11% to 192.10p at 0900 GMT.