Hiscox lifts dividend after third straight year of record profits

(Sharecast News) - Insurance firm Hiscox lifted its full-year dividend payout on Wednesday as it reported a third consecutive year of record pre-tax profits in 2025, with both underwriting and investment income continuing to improve. Hiscox said pre-tax profits rose to $732.7m in FY25, up from $685.4m in FY24, while adjusted operating profits before tax increased to $743.8m from $683.3m. Insurance contract written premiums grew 5.9% to $4.98bn, with all three business segments contributing profitable growth.

Hiscox Retail delivered a 6.3% increase in written premiums at constant currency, in line with guidance, with volume‑led growth expected to continue, building towards 8% for the FY26 and setting the path for double‑digit growth in FY28.

The FTSE 100-listed group also reported record underwriting profit, with an insurance service result of $613.9m, up from $553.5m, and said it undiscounted combined ratio had improved to 87.8% from 89.2%, marking the best group ratio in a decade. Operating return on tangible equity stood at 20.9%, while return on equity was 17.1%.

As a result, Hiscox increased its final dividend by 20% for the second year running, hiking its payout to 35.9 cents per share, and announced a new $300m share buyback - taking total capital returns to more than $1.1bn over the past three years.

Chief executive Aki Hussain said: "2025 was a pivotal year for Hiscox as we delivered another strong performance and made excellent progress in executing our growth and change strategy. In Hiscox Retail, we have achieved multi-year growth and margin expansion through new products, deeper distribution, the deployment of new technologies and execution of our change programme.

"Our retail markets present a large and attractive opportunity with a long runway of growth on which we are executing at pace. In big-ticket, our specialist expertise and technology capabilities have enabled us to launch new business initiatives, more than offsetting the dynamics of our cycle management actions. We are executing on our strategic agenda, and our commitment to underwriting excellence remains at the core."

As of 0815 GMT, Hiscox shares were up 5.13% at 1,537p.

Reporting by Iain Gilbert at Sharecast.com