(Reuters) -British insurer Admiral Group on Thursday said it is in exclusive talks to sell its U.S. business and posted a record annual profit, lifting shares to a more than three-year high.
The company reported group pre-tax profit of 839.2 million pounds ($1.08 billion) for the year ended December 2024, up 90% from a year earlier.
Shares in Admiral were up 8.8% at 3,155 pence in early trade.
Admiral’s competitive pricing has helped it to attract a broad customer base and mitigate the effect of falling motor premiums. It added 1.4 million new customers in 2024, taking the total number to 11.1 million.
“The main driver of our exceptional performance was our UK Motor business,” said Group CEO Milena Mondini de Focatiis, adding that its French and U.S. motor businesses reported a double-digit profit.
Its U.S. insurance business Elephant posted a profit of 14 million pounds for 2024 against last year’s loss of 20 million pounds. Admiral did not provide any additional details about its plans to sell the arm.
Admiral also said it would pay a special dividend of 29.6 pence along with its normal dividend.
($1 = 0.7745 pounds)
(Reporting by Yamini Kalia in Bengaluru; Editing by Varun H K and Jan Harvey)
