MAPFRE Middlesea plc’s Board of Directors have appointed Jose Maria del Pozo as a non-Executive Director at a meeting held on 15th July.

Mr del Pozo occupies the position of EURASIA Regional CFO for the MAPFRE Group and has been a member of the company’s risk and compliance committee since 2018.

Further to this, the Board also presented the unaudited consolidated interim results for MAPFRE Middlesea.

In line with the company’s policy, the Board does not propose the payment of an interim dividend.

The consolidated Group registered a profit before tax for the first six months of 2020 of €10.71 million, compared to €9.83 million registered during the comparative period last year.

The profit after tax and minority interests, allocated to shareholders, amounted to €4.86 million as compared to €4.31 million in 2019.

The increase in profit was derived from improved non-life business results as the long-term business registered a worse performance, impacted by the economic fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Board wrote in its commentary.

MAPRE Middlesea’s non-life business saw premiums for being dented with the onset of the spread of the pandemic with a marked slowdown in new business and a surge in cancellations, as various sectors in the economy grinded to a halt.

Net combined ratios improved as the near lock-down saw a significant drop in claim frequency particularly in Motor and Health business, which mitigated the spike in travel and business interruption claims as a direct consequence of the pandemic.

Both premiums and claim frequency have been observed to be increasing to normal levels as from the month of June, the Board commented.

This helped mitigate rising re-insurance costs resulting from the last two year’s significant large losses, the Board continued.

The profit of the company, although registering an improved technical result, will remain well below that of 2019 as a result of the cancellation of dividend by MAPFRE MSV Life plc, which in 2019 had paid a net dividend of €17.65 to the company.

“This will also have an impact on the dividend that will be payable byb the company to its shareholders for FY 2020”.

The Board remarked that MAPFRE MSV Life had a very challenging first half year with premium levels materially lower than the previous year, particularly during the lockdown months.

This was compounded by the financial market crisis mid-March which saw the worst downturns since the 2008 financial crisis – although the markets have since rallied.

“These factors caused the With-Profits Fund to shirnk by around 3.5 per cent as at June, and as high as 10 per cent at the lowest point of the crisis. The annual management charge on assets under management continues to provide stability to the results, shielding them from the impact of such fluctuations in the financial market.”

The Group’s gross premiums written have decreased by 17.1 per cent during the first six months of 2020. Turnover in General Business contracted by 1.6 per cent as the Motor line of business shrank. Life premium written reduced by 20.9 per cent when compared to the previous year as the reinvestment rate was undermined as a consequence of the pandemic, the Board commented.