Major recovery at General Accident

Profit benefited from improvement in the second half of 2015 at General Accident from a drastic fall off in the first half, to record a small decrease of only 6 percent, hitting $301 million, down from $320 million in 2014, resulting in earnings per share of 29 cents for the year compared to 30 cents in 2014.
In the December quarter, the company reported a huge increase in its net profit of 189 percent to $185.9 million, an increase of $64.4 million.
Gross written premiums grew by 21 percent to $6.1 billion in 2015, from $5 billion in 2014 for the full year and for the last quarter, $664 million versus $555 million in 2014. Net premiums ended at $1.19 billion for the year compared with $1.07 billion in 2014 and for the December quarter, $288 million versus $258 million. Commission and other Income fell to $410 million from $424 million in 2014 and is up in the December quarter, to $137 million from $115 million. Investments income grew marginally to $178 million, from $160 million for the year and to $51.6 million from $43 million in the 2014 quarter.
In 2015, the Company’s claims expense, increased marginally by 3 percent to $699 million versus $679 million in 2014 and for the December 2015 quarter it fell to $108 million from $162 million in the 2014 quarter. Notwithstanding higher claims, underwriting profit grew to $107 million compared to $101 million in 2014 and $129 million in the December quarter versus a mere $12 million in 2014.
Commission expenses grew to $224 million for the year from $183 million and to $88 million for the quarter from $90 million. Management Expenses amounted to $451 million for the year while in 2014 it was $442 million, for the quarter $125 million was incurred and in the 2014 quarter $117 million.
Total shareholders’ equity stood at $1.77 billion up from $1.57 billion in 2014. The return on average equity based on the reported profit is 18 percent but including unrealised investments gains its 22 percent.
The stock traded on the junior market at $2.12 on Thursday at a PE ratio of 7.9 which is one of the lowest within the sector and therefore has room to record gains.