ATRIUM GROWS PREMIUMS BUT PRE-TAX PROFIT FALLS

Atrium’s gross written premiums grew to £412.6m ($512.8m) in 2016, compared with £383.2m in 2015. The insurer saw its combined ratio deteriorate by almost 11 percentage points to 92%, with the Lloyd’s insurer reporting a 47% decline in pre-tax profit to £36.2m. Richard Harries, chief executive of Atrium, said the 2016 result was in line with the group’s original plan for the year, against a backdrop of worsening market conditions. Atrium also revealed syndicate 609, for which it provides 25% of capacity, generated a 17.7% return on its £419.9m capacity for the 2014 year of account. This was ahead of the forecast range of 12.5% to 17.5%. For the 2015 year of account, the syndicate is expected to return between zero and 7.5% of its £420m capacity.