Personal Group set for reprise of record half

28th Sep 2011 15:54

Employee benefits and insurance firm Personal Group said the first half of 2011 was the best six-month period it has ever experienced in its 27-year existence, while the second half of 2011 could be as good, or even better.Profit before tax rose to £4.75m from £4.61m in the first half of last year, on the back of record new business, and despite the company deciding not to pass on to customers the cost of the increase this year in the Insurance Premium Tax.Profits growth was also hampered by the termination package for Nigel Brittle, who resigned as chief executive officer back in April. Annualised new business premiums from the group's core products - hospital, convalescence and death benefit plans - written in the first six months of 2011 was £4.0m, up 14.3% on the corresponding period of last year. Net written premiums written rose to £9.18m from £9.08m at the halfway stage last year."We're an insurance business really," chief executive officer Ken Rooney confided to Sharecast. "The employee benefits products are a trojan horse, a means to market our personal insurance programmes," he added.The company turned an insurance underwriting profit of £7.26m, up a tad from £7.25m last year. The group already underwrites some of its own insurance products, and is looking to "dip its toe" into underwriting business generated outside of the group, with the health insurance sector specifically targeted because of the group's existing expertise in this area. "We'll reinsure the bulk of the [eternally sourced] business, at least initially," Rooney explained. "We'll probably retain about 20% of the risk, though that percentage might increase as time goes by."The debt free company has cash and cash equivalents of £7.03m at the end of June, down from £7.76m a year earlier. Some of this money has been earmarked for a renewed assault on the white-collar market, where the group is nowhere near as strong as it is in the blue-collar area.The company is also eyeing some of its suppliers to which is outsources its booklet and pamphlet production, with a view to adding them to the group.The company has an unusual dividend policy of paying four dividends of equal amount each year. Dividends in the first half of the year totalled 8.7p, up 2.35% on the 8.5p paid in the first half of last year, and finance director John Barber confirmed that the full year dividend is set to be 17.4p, "barring unforeseen circumstances."