British insurer Royal and Sun Alliance today reported an improvement in annual underlying profit but said that floods and other adverse weather in Europe had hindered its recovery.
The company, which was affected by the September 11th, 2001, terrorist attacks, reported operating profit of £226 million sterling (€329 million) for 2002 against £16 million in 2001.
The company claims to have 12 per cent of the Irish insurance market, with 350,000 customers. It employs 600 people in the State.
The firm said that underwriting losses linked to events in previous years, notably the attack on the World Trade Center, had increased to £595 million last year from £342 million in 2001.
Net losses widened by 6 per cent to £940 million, largely owing to goodwill impairment charges of £653 million as the company wrote down the balance sheet value of its US and Australian financial services operations.
Pre-tax losses fell by 18 per cent to £1.02 billion.
PA