# Sabre Insurance Group plc Delivered in line with expectations across all financial and operational measures - Link: https://www.directorstalkinterviews.com/sabre-insurance-group-plc-delivered-in-line-with-expectations-across-all-financial-and-operational-measures/412770810 - Published: 2019-03-28T07:33:15+00:00 - Author: Charlotte Edwards **Sabre Insurance Group plc** (LON:SBRE), one of the UK’s leading private motor insurance underwriters, reports its full year results for the year ended 31 December 2018. **Financial Highlights** | 2018 | 2017 | | Gross written premium | £210.0m | £210.7m | | Net earned premium | £188.2m | £186.9m | | Net loss ratio | 48.5% | 46.5% | | Expense ratio | 22.1% | 22.0% | | Combined operating ratio | 70.6% | 68.5% | | Adjusted profit before tax | £61.9m | £63.9m | | Adjusted profit after tax | £50.1m | £53.3m | | Profit before tax | £61.4m | £55.5m | | Return on tangible equity | 54.4% | 81.8% | | Financial year total dividend per share | 20.0p | N/A | | Solvency coverage ratio | 213% | 160% | | Solvency coverage ratio (post dividend) | 161% | 160% | | Return on opening SCR | 82.0% | 92.1% | · Continued strategy of focusing on underwriting profitability over growth · Delivered in line with expectations across all financial and operational measures, following the exceptionally strong 2017 · Disciplined approach to pricing, with premiums increased to reflect claims inflation, has supported a combined operating ratio ahead of mid 70%’s target whilst delivering flat year on year gross written premiums, in line with guidance · Continued strong organic capital generation with a year-end solvency coverage ratio of 213% (pre dividend) · The Board has declared a final ordinary dividend of 6.8p and a special dividend of 6.0p · Prudent approach to capital management reflected in post dividend solvency coverage ratio at the upper end of our target range **Operational Highlights** · Continued testing and roll-out of innovative new rating factors and data sources · Successful soft launch of new direct van product, Insure2Drive Van, in Q4 2018 · Completed transition to a new hybrid cloud IT infrastructure · Maintained very high levels of staff retention, with 88% of staff survey respondents recommending Sabre as a good place to work · Testing innovative machine learning and AI approaches across the business > **Geoff Carter, Chief Executive Officer of Sabre, said:** > “I am pleased to report on our first full year as a listed business. Against the > backdrop of what have been competitive underlying market conditions during the > year, we have stuck to our core principle of focusing on underwriting profitability > over volume growth. This has ensured that we maintained our market-leading underwriting > performance, with a combined operating ratio better than our target, and continued > to deliver strong organic capital generation. The strong capital generation, driven > by our profitability, has allowed us to return a proportion of excess capital > generated through a proposed special dividend, whilst maintaining our solvency > ratio above our preferred range of 140-160%. From an operational perspective, > we have continued to make excellent progress, building on our competitive strengths > with the introduction of new rating factors and data sources while exploring new, > complementary product lines and maintaining our focus on customer service. > Looking ahead, there remains uncertainty around the market dynamics, but we will > continue to take a prudent approach to monitoring and responding to potential > changes and trends in our industry, taking pricing action only when speculation > and opinion becomes fact. > We are confident that by maintaining our absolute focus on underwriting discipline– > treating volume as an output not target – we will continue to deliver strong profitability > and attractive, consistent returns for shareholders and are well positioned to > take advantage of growth opportunities at the appropriate time. “ Share on: