The word from Canopius Group, a leading international specialty and P&C (re)insurer, who have announced their financial results for the year ended December 31, 2024.
Highlights include:
- Insurance Contract Written Premium increased 26% to $3.53bn (2023: $2.80bn)
- Profit after tax increased by 10% to $401.3m (2023: $363.4m)
- Tangible Net Asset Value (TNAV) increased by 25% to $1.81 bn (2023: $1.45bn)
- Net insurance revenue increased 28% to $2.26bn (2023: $1.77bn)
- Group net combined ratio (discounted) of 84.1% (2023: 83.9%)
- Group net combined ratio (undiscounted) of 90.2% (2023: 88.7%)
- Total net investment return of 5.4%, amounting to $193.8m (2023: $173.1m).
- Return on Opening Tangible Equity (ROTE) of 27.7% (2023: 32.0%)
Neil Robertson, Group Chief Executive Officer, said: “I am delighted with our 2024 results, achieving another record year of profitability. We have developed a consistent track record of returns and have the right framework, strategy and team to deliver profitable growth and attractive returns for our shareholders.
“Our strategy is to take an ambitious but disciplined approach to growing a sustainable international specialty and P&C (re)insurer in areas where we have or can have a distinction or competitive advantage.
“I am pleased to report another year of strong delivery against the goals we have set ourselves. While we expect 2025 to be a more challenging environment, we can look forward with confidence and are highly focused on building on our success and capitalising on the momentum we have achieved”.
Embedded our strategy and evolving our business
Our 2024 results are further testament to the transformation activities over the last three years, which continue to bear fruit.
There has been a substantial evolution of organisational disciplines stretching across the entire business. Decisive actions have been taken, the leadership team has been refreshed and strengthened, and we have been able to recruit top talent from across the industry.
We have been able to substantially re-define our risk appetite and strengthen our balance sheet, in the process reducing volatility in both income statement and balance sheet metrics.
We have also sharpened our strategic focus and reset our ambition towards structural growth over the next three years. We will continue to refine our competitive edge to further enhance and integrate our purpose, vision and innovation into all our activities. As our business grows and matures, we are committed to ensuring it remains efficient and, where practical, we will increase our underwriting commitments and expand our product offerings.
Reaping the rewards of a successful underwriting strategy
During 2024, the business has shown further strong progress. Once again, we have demonstrated the strength and versatility of our underwriting platforms, generating growth and profitability across the Canopius Group.
The underwriting portfolio has been repositioned towards higher quality and more diversified business. We are emphasising superior portfolio construction while also bringing in new underwriting talent and adding new product lines.
Our premium growth of 26% in the year added to the 22% growth that we saw in 2023 and again was very strong by both product and geography. Our attritional loss experience remains healthy, with good underlying accident year performance and positive prior year development.
Together these resulted in a record level of underwriting profitability, despite 2024 being an above average year for natural catastrophes by way of insured losses that have been seen globally throughout the year.
Demonstrating strong financial fundamentals
Our balance sheet is strong and has strengthened substantially again during the year, with tangible net assets growing by 25% to $1.81bn while our capital requirements have only grown by 13%. Our capital surplus over our capital requirements has therefore risen by 31% to $651.3m and continues to be robust, offering resilience to adverse events as well as strategic optionality.
In addition, we have a high-quality investment portfolio, with 73% of our core fixed income securities rated AAA/AA. Our reserving position is strong and has strengthened further during the year and we have limited legacy reserves (specifically back year U.S. casualty liabilities) through the purchase of a loss portfolio transfer in 2021.
Focusing on continued success in 2025
We have built an agile and resilient business, able to perform under a variety of market conditions. The start of 2025 has already thrown up several challenges and the loss environment and emerging rate pressure will continue to require strong disciplines going forward. Nevertheless, the year has started well for the Canopius Group, with attractive premium development and a good reinsurance renewal.
As expected, the broader rating environment remains dynamic, with multiple factors driving the rating environment. We are seeing some rate pressure, but we are relentlessly focused on pricing adequacy which is, in our view, the more refined and appropriate way to consider the impact on premiums. This continues to paint a positive picture across our portfolio.
We still believe there are many opportunities to improve and grow our business and we continue to be confident of the outlook for both for the coming year and into the future. Our priorities for 2025 are to implement our refreshed three-year plan, continue to focus on our successful underwriting strategy and philosophy, and build on our strong financial base.
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