Insurance market Lloyd’s of London toasts best result ‘in recent history’ with £10.7bn profit

Lloyd’s of London has achieved its strongest annual results ‘in recent history’ after reporting a record profit following a loss last year.

The world’s largest insurance market, which traces its roots back to a 17th-century coffeehouse, recovered to a profit of £10.7 billion last year after posting a pre-tax loss of £800 million in 2022.

The company attributed the performance to higher interest rates and a “settlement of the previously recorded mark-to-market loss.”

In the group’s insurance arm, profits rose from £2.6 billion to £5.9 billion due to falling costs from high risk and natural disaster claims.

This helped boost the company’s combined ratio – the difference between written premiums and payouts – by almost eight percentage points to 84 percent, the highest level in sixteen years.

A ratio below 100 percent indicates a profit, while any figure above that number represents a loss.

Gross written premiums at Lloyd’s reached £52.1 billion, an increase of 11.6 percent on the previous year and the third consecutive year of double-digit growth.

John Neal, CEO of Lloyd’s, said: ‘The results we report today are our best in recent history, with an excellent underwriting result supported by a strong and resilient balance sheet.

“Our ability to raise capital – and generate returns – is essential to ensure we can support our customers through uncertainty.”

In recent years, the insurance market has handed out billions in claims related to the war in Ukraine, mainly for planes stranded in Russia.

The country has also suffered losses due to a significant number of extreme weather events; in 2023 these included the earthquake between Turkey and Syria, the wildfires in Hawaii in August and Cyclone Gabrielle in Oceania.

Lloyd’s of London’s results come a few weeks after two of its insurers, Beazley and Hiscox, both reported record annual profits and launched major share buybacks.