Admiral sees strong year as H1 profit rises

LONDON (Reuters) - Car insurer Admiral Group Plc (ADML.L) said it expected a strong full-year as the company added to the robust earnings reports from the top UK insurance companies with better-than-expected interim profits.

Admiral said on Wednesday its pretax profit for the six months to June rose 21 percent, driven by growth at its core UK motor insurance business where the company won new customers and produced higher revenues.

Admiral announced a record interim dividend of 32.6 pence, up 18 percent, and said each member of staff would get 1,500 pounds worth of free Admiral shares.

Admiral shares were up 3.9 percent at 1,531 pence at 9:00 a.m., giving the company a market capitalisation of around 4 billion pounds. The stock was the second-biggest gainer on the FTSE 100 blue-chip index .FTSE.

"They were strong numbers. Admiral is gaining market share and managing to improve margins," said Numis Securities analyst Nick Johnson, who has a "reduce" rating on Admiral shares.

Britain's top insurers have all posted robust profits over the last month.

Earlier this month, Prudential Plc (PRU.L), Aviva (AV.L), Legal & General (LGEN.L) and Standard Life (SL.L) all reported higher first-half profits, with their earnings often boosted by growth at overseas operations.

HOUSEHOLD INSURANCE

Admiral Finance Director Kevin Chidwick told reporters on a conference call the company expected 2010 to be a very strong year.

Chidwick said the company's plans to expand into household insurance, which were announced last month, were still at the preliminary stage.

"We're looking to recruit experts and take it through to a pilot stage," he said.

Chidwick said Admiral had no plans to take part in the recent phase of consolidation in the insurance sector, such as RSA's (RSA.L) attempt to buy some core businesses of Aviva and Resolution's (RSL.L) acquisition of AXA's (AXAF.PA) UK life insurance arm.

"We're not really interested in M&A (mergers and acquisitions)," said Chidwick.

Pretax profit was 126.9 million pounds compared with 105.3 million the previous year and 125.7 million from Thomson Reuters Starmine. Admiral had forecast pretax profit to be 124.3 million.

(Editing by Sharon Lindores and Karen Foster)