Hastings Group Holdings share price finishes up after the insurance company announces first dividend since float and a profit before tax in results for year ended December 2015
Share price in Hastings Group Holdings finished up today after the insurance company announced its first dividend since it floated on the London Stock Exchange last year.
In its results for the year ended December 2015, the insurer proposed a dividend of 2.2 pence per share, as well as revealing a profit before tax of £5m, up from a loss of £1.4m the year before.
Meanwhile, gross written premiums rose to £614.9m, up 27 per cent from £483.4m in 2014, while the number of live policies the company has grew to 2.04m, up 19 per cent from 1.71m the year before.
Shares in the company, which floated last October, closed up 4.3 per cent at 168.5p.
"I’m extremely proud of our 2,300 colleagues who helped us achieve our successes in 2015," said Gary Hoffman, chief executive of Hastings Group Holdings. "Building on this momentum, we have had a positive start to the current year and remain well positioned to continue to deliver profitable growth in 2016. We remain on track to meet or beat the four targets we set at our IPO."
Meanwhile, in his statement, non-excutive chairman Mike Fairey, added: "It has been a landmark year for the company achieving a successful listing on the London Stock Exchange on 15 October 2015 and subsequent admittance to the FTSE 250 index."