Admiral Group's FY'20 pretax profit up 21% YOY

Admiral Group PLC reported a full-year 2020 group share of pretax profit of £638.4 million, up 21% from £526.1 million a year earlier.

Group statutory pretax profit from continuing operations grew on a yearly basis to £608.2 million from £505.1 million. EPS went up to 179.5 pence from the year-ago 148.3 pence. Return on equity remained flat year over year at 52%.

The British insurer noted that the main driver behind the strong result was a higher U.K. insurance result, which benefitted from reduced claims frequency and continued strong prior-year reserve releases, as well as the nonrecurrence of the £33 million negative Ogden discount rate impact in 2019.

Group net revenue from continuing operations totaled £1.31 billion, up 8% from £1.21 billion a year earlier. The post-dividend solvency ratio was 187% as of Dec. 31, 2020, compared to 190% a year ago.

Group turnover amounted to £3.55 billion, up 2% from the year-ago £3.46 billion. U.K. net insurance premium totaled £539.7 million, up from £533.2 million in 2019, while net insurance premium revenue for the company also increased over the period to £751.6 million from £709.4.

The group combined ratio was 81.2%, compared to 88.6% in 2019.

Additionally, the board proposed a final dividend of 86.0 pence per share for 2020, up 12% from a year ago. The final dividend consists of a 63.6 pence per share normal dividend and a special dividend of 22.4 pence per share.

The dividend will be paid June 4. The ex-dividend date is May 6 and the record date is May 7.