Admiral sails to eighth profit record

Admiral will this week post its eight-successive year of record profit, despite some of the toughest conditions in the British motor insurance market in recent years.

City experts expect the Cardiff-based company, which owns the confused.com price comparison site fronted by Brian the Robot, to have made a pre-tax profit of £177.2m during the six months ending 30 June, compared with £171.2m in 2012.

The results come against a backdrop of falling premiums across the car cover industry and a ban on the ancillary income which insurers make from referral fees.

Recent figures from accountancy EY revealed that the motor insurance industry has a combined ratio of 102.6 per cent. This means, in effect, that motor insurers are paying out 2.6p per £1 more in claims than they take in premiums.

Admiral was founded by entrepreneur Henry Engelhardt in 1993, and now employs more than 5,000 people in South Wales.