Reinsurer Swiss Re beat market expectations as its first-half net profit doubled amid low claims and solid investment income.
Net profit in the first six months of 2004 came in at 1.4 billion Swiss francs ($1.10 billion), up from 691 million Swiss francs in the same period last year. Analysts had, on average, expected net profit of 1.12 billion Swiss francs.
The company has previously said it expected to "see more progression on earnings". Like other reinsurers - companies which reinsure risks that are too big for insurance companies to take on alone - Swiss Re has been recovering from a series of loss-making years, also helped by improving stock markets.
Its combined ratio - which measures costs and claims against premiums - for its property and casualty business dropped to 96.1 per cent, improving from 99.8 per cent in the year-ago period.
A combined ratio below 100 per cent shows the company's core insurance business is profitable.
Earned premiums were down 2 per cent at 14.1 billion Swiss francs, while analysts in the poll on average had been looking for a rise of around 9 per cent to 15.7 billion Swiss francs.
Swiss Re shares have lost some 14 per cent of their value so far this year, underperforming the DJ Stoxx European insurers index by about 9 per cent. The shares are due to start trading at 7 a.m.