West of England P&I Club has reported a stronger capital position in the six months to August 2016. In its mid-year review, which fleshes out earlier formal notifications, West of England Club noted an 8% growth in free reserves to close to $300m.
Its combined ratio for the first half was 93.3%.
Although the number of entered vessels has remained broadly similar, the average size of entered vessels continues to increase. Owned and chartered tonnage
continues to grow through organic growth and new business has a combined GT of more than 100m.
The Club said that its “excellent” claims trend reported in February continued. “Of particular note is the positive development of 2014 with 2015 following the levels of other more recent policy years”, the Club said.
Claims for 2016 in the first half displayed the same positive trend. Pool claims data for the period was also encouraging, with only six notified claims by other Clubs to the pool, similar to the same period of 2015.
The Club’s solvency capital “continues to be well above the SCR requirements under Solvency II”.
On the investment side, “notwithstanding adverse currency effects on property arising from sterling weakness” an overall investment return of 1.8% ($10.6m) was recorded in the first half.
http://www.westpandi.com/globalassets/news/west-of-england—mid-year-review-2016.pdf