Lloyd's of London swung to a first-half pre-tax profit of 3.9 billion pounds ($4.88 billion), helped by rises in premium rates and positive investment returns, the commercial insurance market said on Thursday.

Lloyd's recorded a loss of 1.8 billion pounds for the same period a year ago.

Lloyd's, which has more than 50 insurance members, saw a 22% rise in gross written premiums to 29.3 billion pounds due to expansion in existing syndicates, the introduction of new syndicates and a 9.1% increase in rates, it said in a statement.

The COVID-19 pandemic, Ukraine war, inflation and climate change-fuelled natural catastrophes have helped insurers and reinsurers to raise premiums, improving their profits. S&P Global this week lifted its view on reinsurers to stable from negative.

Lloyd's saw a net investment return of 1.8 billion pounds, compared with a loss of 3.1 billion pounds a year earlier.

“Combined with the market’s progress in driving sustainable performance, digitalisation and showing leadership from climate transition to culture change, these results set us up to deliver on our positive financial outlook for 2023,” Lloyd's CEO John Neal said in the statement.

 

 

 

($1 = 0.7996 pounds) (Reporting by Carolyn Cohn; Editing by Sharon Singleton)