Irish insurer FBD Holdings posted a first-half loss and warned that full-year earnings will be below analysts' estimates as claims for the recent floods were expected to pour in.
The net loss of €6.6 million, or 20.1 cents a share, compared with a profit of €44.5 million, or 126.2 cents, in the year-earlier period. Operating profit fell to €40.7 million from €65.1 million.
FBD was hurt by a 44.1 million loss on its investment portfolio as global financial markets
tumbled. Investment income was also affected by the performance of the company's Irish and Spanish commercial-property unit.
"The reduction in operating profits is as a result of anticipated lower underwriting margins and a reduced longer-term investment return,'' Chief Executive Officer Andrew Langford said in the statement.
Full-year earnings will be "marginally below" analysts' consensus estimates of 211 to 233 cents, hurt by insurance claims for the recent floods in parts of Ireland.
FBD fell 65 cents, or 4.3 per cent, to €14.55 at 10.35am in Dublin trading, extending the stock's decline for the year to 42 per cent.
Gross premiums written slipped 3.4 per cent to €198.4 million. The company said it found it hard to keep customers after increasing prices as rivals competed for its business at what it called "uneconomic rates".
FBD raised the first-half dividend by 10 per cent to 30.25 cents.
Bloomberg