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Sabre Insurance Group has reported a 13% fall in post-tax profits to £39.8 million after a year that was 'heavily disrupted' by Covid-19, which extended the challenging stage of the car insurance market cycle.
The private motor insurance underwriters said the pandemic forced the business to be 'resolutely focused on our long-term strategy of prioritising underwriting profitability over premium volume'.
For the year ended December 31, 2020, the company saw its gross written premium fall from £197 million in 2019 to £173.2 million at the end of 2020.
Pre-tax profits were down 13.1% from £56.5 million in 2019 to £49.1 million at the end of 2020.
The company has proposed a dividend payment of 11.7p per share.
Geoff Carter, CEO of Sabre, said: 'The strength and simplicity of our business model means we have been able to support all of our stakeholders. We have maintained strong dividend flows to our shareholders, retained all staff on full salaries, and continued to award pay raises. We supported customers by relaxation of certain policy conditions and focused temporary price discounts to reflect likely claims savings.
'At the same time, throughout this disruption, we have remained resolutely focused on our long-term strategy of prioritising underwriting profitability over premium volume. This has delivered a strong level of profitability and allows us to provide our investors with another attractive proposed dividend payment of 11.7p per share.'
At 1:54pm: (LON:SBRE) Sabre Insurance Group PLC share price was 0p at 259.5p