RSA Canada a key growth driver for RSA Group
In 2010, RSA Canada saw a premium growth of 9 percent and a combined operating ratio (COR) of 92.8 percent, despite the impact of severe weather events.
The company released its year-end results, which RSA Canada President and CEO Rowan Saunders called “exceptional.”
“We’ve delivered a consistently strong performance for the last several years, but 2010 has been the best we’ve had in at least 20 years. We’ve had a great start to 2011 with the close of our GCAN acquisition in January, which made us the fourth largest general insurer in Canada. By staying focused on our strategy, we anticipate continued success into 2011,” he said in a statement.
RSA Canada said its top and bottom line performance has been excellent, with premiums up by 9% to $1,980m. In Personal lines, including Johnson Inc., RSA again grew strongly, with net written premiums up by 7% to $1,482m; the COR for Personal lines was 94.2%. These results were driven by increased new business levels including a number of large portfolio wins and growth within our sponsorship business, as well as continued strong rate and retention numbers. In Commercial lines, growth of 15% to $498m and a COR of 88.3% was driven by new business in Mid-Market and SME from both organic and portfolio rollovers. The underwriting result grew by 13% to $128m.
The RSA Group has once again delivered a strong top line and robust bottom line performance with net written premium growth of 11% to £7.5bn, in what has been an extremely challenging year for the industry given the severe weather and high number of catastrophe events. The COR was 96.4%, including 3.5 points of weather losses worse than normal levels. Operating profit was £636m. To have delivered a COR of 96.4% in these conditions underlines the strength and resilience of the Group.
“RSA Canada has been a key growth driver for the RSA Group in 2010 and has significantly outperformed the P&C marketplace for a number of years now,” said Simon Lee, CEO, RSA International. “We look forward with confidence in 2011 that RSA will continue to deliver sustainable, profitable growth in Canada.”
