LONDON (Reuters) - British insurer RSA (L:RSA) posted on Thursday a 1% increase in its operating profit in the first half of the year, in line with forecasts, driven by strong performance in its general insurance business.
The home, motor and commercial insurer said operating profit excluding exits rose to 308 million pounds ($373.36 million), compared with a company-supplied analyst forecast of 306 million pounds.
RSA, best known in Britain for its More Than brand, also has major businesses in Canada, Ireland and Scandinavia.
Combined ratio, a measure of underwriting profitability, in which a figure below 100% indicates a profit, improved slightly to 94.3% from 94.7% against a prediction of 94.1%.
"Particularly pleasing is the improvement in current year underwriting results, which represent our best first half in the last 10 years. Our personal lines business continues to drive this performance," RSA Chief Executive Stephen Hester said in a statement.
Personal lines outperformed commercial business at a combined ratio of 89.9% versus 98.8%.
RSA warned last year about poor performance in its London-based international commercial insurance business and pulled out of several lines, including international freight and construction.
The insurer said on Thursday it had programmes to improve underwriting performance in its commercial business and could exit further lines.
Net written premiums remained largely unchanged at 3.2 billion pounds, in line with an analyst forecast.
The company said it would pay an interim dividend of 7.5 pence per share, from last year's 7.3 pence.
($1 = 0.8249 pounds)