Five year summary

	2010 £000	2009 £000	2008† £000	2007 £000	2006 £000
Results
Gross premiums written	1,432,674	1,435,401	1,147,364	1,198,949	1,126,164
Net premiums written	1,131,627	1,157,023	898,394	974,910	975,397
Net premiums earned	1,131,158	1,098,102	928,095	965,190	888,828
Profit before tax	211,366	320,618	105,180	237,199	201,062
Profit for the year after tax	178,800	280,497	70,808	191,248	163,846
Assets employed
Intangible assets	64,108	50,413	48,557	40,452	33,212
Financial assets carried at fair value	2,459,107	2,413,300	2,081,772	1,747,827	1,241,910
Cash and cash equivalents	336,017	259,647	440,622	302,742	502,871
Insurance liabilities and reinsurance assets	(1,817,102)	(1,702,225)	(1,773,622)	(1,433,799)	(1,291,329)
Other net assets	223,984	100,151	153,697	167,082	195,421
Net assets	1,266,114	1,121,286	951,026	824,304	682,085
Net asset value per share (p)	332.7	299.2	258.1	209.5	173.2
Key statistics
Basic earnings per share (p)	47.2	75.2	18.8	48.4	41.7
Diluted earnings per share (p)	45.4	72.3	18.1	46.8	40.5
Combined ratio (%)	89.3	86.0	75.3	84.4	89.1
Return on equity (%)	16.5	30.1	9.2	28.8	28.9

Dividends per share (p)	16.5	15.00	12.75	12.00	10.00

Share price – high* (p)	381.40	362.00	361.00	304.50	280.25
Share price – low* (p)	317.00	277.00	194.75	246.75	193.75

*Closing mid market prices.
†As a result of a change in presentation, 2008 and later years included acquisition costs for the purchase of reinsurance contracts within expenses for the acquisition of insurance contracts. Earlier years include these costs within ‘outward reinsurance premiums’.

Annual Report 2010

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