Catlin Group
3.2% Average fall in premium rates
I would not wish to be too hard on those analysts covering the insurance industry, but they seem to have slipped up badly on Catlin. The consensus for pre-tax profits was $237 million for the first half; the figures came in at $318 million, a 118 per cent increase.
That is quite a miss. Catlin runs the biggest syndicate at Lloyd’s, but the halfway figures indicate just why the company chose to diversify into other regional markets in Asia and the Americas a decade and a half ago. About half the business is now outside London, and Stephen Catlin, the chief executive, says the rates available in such areas are significantly better than in the UK capital