Admiral 1st Half Pretax Profit Up 21% On Rising Customer Numbers

U.K. insurer Admiral Group PLC (ADM.LN) on Wednesday posted a 21% rise in first-half pretax profit and raised interim dividends on a continued rise in the number of customers signing up for car insurance, and said this year promises to be a "year of great opportunity" for the company.

Admiral said pretax profit for the six months ended June 30 was GBP126.9 million, up from GBP105.3 million a year earlier. The result was close to the GBP124.3 million average forecast from 14 analysts.

Chief Executive Officer Henry Engelhardt said this year "is shaping up to be a year of great opportunity and I'm extremely proud of how everyone at Admiral has stepped up to the challenge."

"The U.K. car insurance business continues to be the driving force behind our success and in the first half of 2010 we shifted up yet another gear," Engelhardt said.

The company raised premium rates by around 14% in the first half and increased customer numbers by 23% to 2.37 million from 1.92 million a year earlier. It raised its interim dividend by 18% to 32.6 pence a share.

In the U.K., Admiral also operates the Confused.com price comparison Web site. It runs web-based insurance operations in Spain through Balumba.es, in Italy through ConTe.it and in Germany through AdmiralDirekt.de.

In October last year, it launched its car insurance operations in Richmond, Virginia, in the U.S., trading under the brand name Elephant.

Engelhardt said the company plans to launch an insurance operation in France next year as the final part of its five-year strategic plan.

Admiral shares closed 0.3% lower Tuesday at 1,473 pence. The shares are 24% higher than at the start of the year, boosting the company's market capitalization to GBP3.95 billion.

-By Vladimir Guevarra, Dow Jones Newswires; +44 (0) 2078429486, vladimir.guevarra@dowjones.com

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