Lloyd's of London insurer Beazley today hinted it could relocate its corporate headquarters back to London. The company moved to Ireland for tax purposes in 2009 but admitted a move back to the City was “not out of the question”.
“We continually review our domicile — it’s about having the right environment for the company to work in,” finance director Martin Bride said. “There have been changes to UK tax and regulation but we will have to see.”
The comments were made as the group suffered a 27% fall in first half profits of $82.3 million (£53.6 million) because of lower investment returns and foreign exchange losses. The news sent the company’s shares tumbling almost 6%.
Despite this, the group’s combined ratio improved to 89% from 91% in 2012, meaning that it made a profit of 11p on every pound of premiums paid out.
“The first half of 2013 has been an eventful one in investment markets,” chief executive Andrew Horton said. “The year started with strong returns for most classes of risk asset and this continued until the middle of May. The last six weeks of the half were marked by significant rises in US interest rates.
“The rise in rates created mark-to-market losses in the fixed income portfolio that cancelled out the profits we had made earlier in the year.”
