Insurer Hastings share price plunges after it warns of competitive market
Investors slammed insurer Hastings this morning after it warned that a competitive market meant that it was likely to perform at the lower end of its announced range.
Its share price crashed more than 16 per cent this morning. Having started the day on 216p it hit a low of 183p before recovering slightly to 195p at the time of writing.
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Announcing its third quarter results it said: “The group expects to maintain its disciplined pricing strategy in the ongoing competitive market that is likely to continue for the rest of the year.
"Despite the pricing actions taken during the year, claims inflation is expected to continue to exceed premium inflation and the group’s loss ratio for the full year is expected to be at the lower end of the target range of 75 per cent to 79 per cent and trend towards the middle of the target range for the year ending 31 December 2019.”
Gross written premiums increased three per cent from the same quarter last year to £738.5m, while net revenue grew seven per cent to £573m.
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Customer numbers grew four per cent to 2.7m and its share of the UK private car insurance sector grew from 7.2 per cent to 7.5 per cent.
Chief executive Toby van der Meer said: “We have 2.7m customers, an increase of four per cent from last year, which we achieved whilst remaining true to our pricing discipline and increasing premiums in a competitive market.
“We remain well positioned in a very large market with 31m cars on the road, growing consumer adoption of digital channels and continued media and regulatory focus on consumer switching.”