SYDNEY, Feb. 24 --MediaNet-International-AsiaNet/InfoQuest The directors of QBE Insurance Group today announced a record operating profit after tax of $820 million for the year ended 31 December 2004, up 43% on last year. Pre-tax profit was up 41% to $1,080 million. Fully-diluted earnings per share increased 35% to 104.5cents and the return on average shareholders’ funds was 21.2% compared with 18.3%. Insurance profit before tax increased 45% to $908 million, despite net claims from large catastrophes of $320 million compared with $27 million in 2003. Insurance profit to net earned premium was 13.4% compared with 10.4%. Cash flow from operations was again strong at $2,110 million compared with $2,089 million. Gross earned premium was up 10% to $8,571 million and net earned premium increased 12% to $6,781 million. The impact of the stronger Australian dollar on premium growth was significant. Using 2003 rates of exchange, gross and net earned premium would have increased 16% and 17% respectively. In recognition of the strong operating performance, the directors have declared a 36% increase in the final 2004 dividend from 22.0 cents per share last year to 30.0 cents per share. The dividend will be 50% franked. Books close for the final dividend on 7 March 2005 and the dividend reinvestment plans continue at a discount rate of 2.5%. Mr Frank O’Halloran, QBE’s Chief Executive Officer, said “We have exceeded our main financial targets for 2004 in all our insurance divisions, outperforming our overall investment benchmarks with a low-risk investment strategy.” QBE has upgraded its expectations for the insurance margin for 2005 from the previously announced range of 12%-13% to 12.5%-13.5% of net-earned premium. Mr O’Halloran added “acquisition activity during 2004 added over $1.5 billion in annualised gross premium, of which $0.7 billion was written in 2004. This underpins the Group’s 2005 growth targets of a 10% increase in gross written premium to $9.6 billion and a 12.5% increase in net earned premium to $7.6 billion. Even though overall premium rates were slightly less than our expectations for the major renewal season of 1 January 2005, the quality and diversification of our insurance businesses around the world and the strength of our liabilities for outstanding claims and unearned premiums give us confidence that, subject to the usual caveats, we can increase our profit after tax by more than 10% in 2005.” SOURCE: QBE Insurance CONTACT: Fay Walker +61-401-521-030 http://www.qbe.com --Distributed by AsiaNet (www.asianetnews.net)--