Kiwi insurer Tower has paid a dividend to investors after posting a strong set of financial results.
The group paid an interim dividend with its half-year results in May.
Blair Turnbull, Tower CEO, said there an ongoing focus to create “a more agile and digital business model” helped the company weather a number of large events in the first four months of the financial year.
“In the four months to 31 January 2021, we achieved $129m Gross Written Premium (GWP), representing growth of 6% on the same period last year thanks to our ongoing focus on delivering for our customers. Along with the addition of the Youi NZ portfolio, this growth has seen our market share increase to 9.2% in December 2020, up from 8.4% at the same time last year,” says Turnbull.
Tower did not change its full year profit guidance, and noted a 5% improvement on the 2020 full year.
Over the 12 months, Tower’s biggest expenses included the Lake Ōhau fire and Napier floods, which resulted in a $10m large events expense year to date. Tower said the event would impact underlying net profit in 2021. Tower’s aggregate reinsurance cover is triggered at $14m.
The group also made headway with its data platform over the past year. Migration of all Tower Direct customers to its new digital and data platform is nearly complete. Over 270,000 Tower customer policies now on its leading, cloud-based digital and data platform.
