(Reuters) -British motor insurer Sabre Insurance on Tuesday said it expects growth in annual gross written premiums to moderate slightly, after reporting slower growth in the first nine months of the year, hurt by inflation in motor claims.
While Sabre has benefitted from aggressive price hikes, higher costs of claims and an underperforming motor insurance market continued to drag its performance.
“We have seen clear signs that market pricing has softened considerably during the summer. Our view is that market price movements outstrip any potential short-term benefits from a slight softening in claims inflation,” CEO Geoff Carter said.
Sabre’s total gross written premiums grew 15% to 186.5 million pounds in the nine months to Sept. 30. It reported a 26% growth for the first half of the year.
The company’s gross written premiums for motorcycles also shrank 23% to 8.2 million pounds during the period.
Shares fell 1.7% to 135 pence in early trade.
“Given the (motor insurance) industry made an underwriting loss for the last two years and claims inflation remains elevated, we think this is short-term irrational behaviour,” Panmure Liberum analyst Abid Hussain said.
(Reporting by Yamini Kalia in Bengaluru; Editing by Janane Venkatraman)
