Beazley delivers record H1 profit of $728.9m despite worlds largest IT outage

London-headquartered insurer Beazley has announced a significant rise in its H1 2024 profit before tax, reaching $728.9 million, a sharp increase from the $366.4 million recorded in H1 2023, while the company’s undiscounted combined ratio improved to 81%, down from 88% in the same period last year.

These gains were achieved despite the firm facing the world’s largest-ever IT outage in H1.

With its position as a leading cyber insurer, Beazley noted that its approach to underwriting cyber risk was rigorously tested by the event, though demonstrated to be “highly resilient”.

Beazley’s insurance written premiums increased to $3.12 billion in H1 2024, an improvement of 7% compared to H1 2023.

Meanwhile, net written insurance premiums in H1 2024 totalled $2.58 billion, marking a 10% increase from the corresponding period in 2023.

Breaking down this total, Beazley’s Specialty Risks segment contributed $800.2 million, Property Risks segment $784.8 million, Cyber Risks segment $454.3 million, MAP Risks segment $435.3 million, and Digital segment $111.9 million.

For all of the above divisions, the cumulative rate change in H1 was 85% for H1 2024, up from 84% in H1 2023.

At the same time, Beazley’s insurance service result in H1 2024 was $558 million, up 63% from the opening half of last year.

The insurer’s investment team also boasted an excellent first half to the year, delivering a strong return of $251.7 million compared to $143.9 million in H1 2023.

Adrian Cox, CEO of Beazley, commented, “I am pleased to report a record first-half profit of $728.9 million. Expertise in underwriting and active risk selection are key drivers of this strong result, even as the rating environment is moderating.

“Property grew 25% in the first half, demonstrating the success of our strategy to grow in this increasingly specialist class, focusing on the US E&S market.

“We continue to innovate in cyber, launching one of the market’s most comprehensive, integrated cyber security and insurance offerings with Full Spectrum Cyber and Beazley Security.”

Cox continued, “When faced with the world’s largest ever IT outage, Beazley’s approach to underwriting cyber risk was tested and proved to be highly resilient.

“We see opportunities in the remainder of the year and are confident in delivering on our high single-digit growth guidance. We are also pleased to confirm that we have improved our undiscounted combined ratio guidance for the full year to around 80%.”

Among other highlights from H1 2024, Beazley Security officially launched at the end of June, with the integration of its in-house Cyber Services team and wholly owned cyber security company Lodestone.

At the start of the year, the firm also announced the launch of its first 144a cyber catastrophe bond.

At $140m it was nearly twice the size of the cover Beazley achieved in 2023, via the market’s first-ever cyber catastrophe bond, and in May 2024, the bond more than doubled to $300 million.

According to the firm, both of these have been a great success and it will continue to look at opportunities in a similar vein in the future.

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