Lloyd’s of London swings to 2022 pre-tax loss

FRANKFURT (Reuters) – Lloyd’s of London swung to a pre-tax loss in 2022 and took writedowns on its fixed-income investments, it said on Thursday.

The pre-tax loss was 800 million pounds ($982.56 million), compared with a profit of 2.3 billion pounds a year earlier.

Rising interest rates have hit investments at many financial firms, and it posted a net investment loss of 3.1 billion pounds, compared with a 900 million pound profit in 2021.

However, Lloyd’s underwriting profit jumped 53% to 2.6 billion pounds. Higher premium rates have helped insurers’ underwriting profits in recent years.

John Neal, CEO of Lloyd’s, forecast 2023 premiums of 56 billion pounds, up from 46.7 billion in 2022, according to a statement.

($1 = 0.8142 pounds)

(Reporting by Tom Sims; Editing by Sandra Maler)