Emerging markets boost RSA figures
GROWTH in emerging markets helped revenue at RSA Insurance Group jump by just under 10 per cent in the third quarter. Net written premiums rose to £5.5bn in the nine months to 30 September, up from £5.03bn a year earlier.
The insurer announced strong numbers in emerging markets with net written premiums up 19 per cent to £683m, and a massive rise of 33 per cent for India, to £84m.
Latin America was also strong for the insurer, where premiums were up 23 per cent across the board. The figure in Argentina was up 63 per cent and in Brazil it was 31 per cent.
The group said that it expects to return a double-digit growth in emerging markets in 2011 and predicted that it will come close to that number this year.
“We continue to supplement organic growth with targeted acquisitions,” said Andy Haste, Group CEO of RSA. “We remain excited about the group’s prospects and confident of delivering sustainable profitable performance.”
Performance in the UK was also strong, with premiums up by 10 per cent to £2.175bn. The launch of a pet insurance business in association with supermarket giant Tesco is expected to be a big income stream for the group, and RSA calculates that it will generate around £100m of premiums in 2011.
RSA has made a number of overseas acquisitions in the past year, most recently of GCAN in Canada.