Source: Radio New Zealand
The company forecasted an underlying profit for the coming year between $55m-65m. RNZ / Dan Cook
Insurance company Tower has reported record profits, as increased numbers of customers drove premium income, while it had a low level of big-claim events.
Key numbers for the year ended September compared with a year ago:
- Net profit $83.7m v $74.3m
- Underlying profit $107.2m v $83.5m
- Gross written premium $600m v $595m
- Large event costs $7.2m v claim back $2.3m
- Full year dividend 24.5 cents per share v 9.5 cps
The New Zealand-owned company extended its recovery and return to profit, as it sold more policies, boosting its premium income, and benefited from below-average large claims.
“This is an exceptional result, underpinned by Tower’s transformation, driven by investment in our digital platform and continued focus on underwriting discipline, technology, data and efficiency,” chief executive Paul Johnston said.
The company added 5000 new customers to 318,000, as it concentrated on lower-risk policies and competitive pricing, which boosted its housing-insurance revenue.
The bottom-line result was affected by increased Canterbury earthquake claims cost estimates, the ongoing cost of customer remediations and a provision for software impairment.
The company said the Dunedin floods of October 2024 and Cyclone Tam in April were treated as big events, costing $7m.
Storms that hit the country in late October were expected to cost about $4.5m and would be accounted in the coming year’s accounts.
Johnston said the past couple of years had been out of the ordinary and were not likely to continue.
“We expect conditions that influenced the FY24 and FY25 results, such as relatively benign weather and prior-year rating flowing through the portfolio, to normalise in the coming year.”
The company forecasted an underlying profit for the coming year between $55m-65m and has set aside $45m to cover big-disaster claims.
– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand
