Admiral's international arms report £8.9m loss in 1H 2012

The combined operations insured 385 600 vehicles at 30 June 2012, 63% higher than a year earlier (235 900).

The group has car insurance businesses in four markets outside the UK: Spain (Admiral Seguros), Italy (ConTe), the US (Elephant Auto) and France (L'olivier Assurances).

Vehicles and turnover from these four operations now represent 11% and 7% of the group totals respectively, up from 7% and 5% in H1 2011.

But Admiral's overseas business as a whole continues to make a loss before tax, and the overall total of £8.9m to 30 June 2012 was worse than the same period in 2011 (£3.2m loss).

Admiral's underwriting result was a £13.3m loss compared with a £6.4m loss for the first half of 2011, and the combined operating ratio of 168% was an increase on H1 2011 (157%) and worse than the full year 2011 (164%).

Admiral explained that the higher combined ratio was the result of two factors. Firstly, the expense ratio of each business improved compared with H1 2011 but, as newer operations grow to become more significant contributors to the overall international result, the expense ratios of those operations drove a higher overall expense ratio of 64% (up from 60%).

Secondly, the loss ratio increased to 104% from 97%, although this was in line with FY 2011.

Following the sale of the Chiarezza Italian price comparison operation during H1, the group now operates two price comparison websites outside the UK: Rastreator in Spain and LeLynx in France.

On a like-for-like basis, revenue from these operations more than doubled to £10m in H1 2012 reflecting improved conversion rates. Total quotes generated across all products increased by 64% to 2.2 million.

The combined result for international price comparison was a loss of £0.3m, up from a £3.2m loss in H1 2011.

The disposal of Chiarezza (pictured) had an insignificant impact on the income statement, the group concluded.