Last close As at 05/08/2026
GBP2.23
— 0.00 (0.00%)
Market capitalisation
GBP156m
Research: Financials
Helios Underwriting (Helios) delivered a strong EPS recovery in FY23 from a loss of 3.1p in FY22 to a profit of 21.6p, 50% ahead of our forecast of 14.7p, driven by super syndicate underwriting profit of £31.6m versus £0.1m in FY22 and a combined ratio of 86%. Lloyd’s of London (Lloyd’s) capacity at year-end was accelerated to £507m relative to our expectation of £502m, with retained capacity of £392m also ahead. Net asset value (NAV) increased from 151p/share to 189p/share, slightly ahead of our forecast of 187p/share. The dividend doubled from 3p/share to 6p/share as expected. Our forecasts and valuation are under review.
Helios Underwriting |
Healthy FY23 beat supports strong outlook |
FY23 results |
Insurance |
30 May 2024 |
Share price performance
Business description
Analyst
Helios Underwriting is a research client of Edison Investment Research Limited |
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Helios Underwriting (Helios) delivered a strong EPS recovery in FY23 from a loss of 3.1p in FY22 to a profit of 21.6p, 50% ahead of our forecast of 14.7p, driven by super syndicate underwriting profit of £31.6m versus £0.1m in FY22 and a combined ratio of 86%. Lloyd’s of London (Lloyd’s) capacity at year-end was accelerated to £507m relative to our expectation of £502m, with retained capacity of £392m also ahead. Net asset value (NAV) increased from 151p/share to 189p/share, slightly ahead of our forecast of 187p/share. The dividend doubled from 3p/share to 6p/share as expected. Our forecasts and valuation are under review.
Year end |
Revenue (£m) |
PBT* (£m) |
EPS* |
DPS |
P/E |
Yield |
12/22** |
148.3 |
(5.2) |
(3.1) |
3.0 |
N/A |
2.3 |
12/23 |
212.9 |
22.1 |
21.6 |
6.0 |
6.0 |
4.7 |
12/24e |
332.1 |
25.8 |
26.2 |
12.8 |
4.9 |
9.9 |
12/25e |
441.9 |
37.0 |
37.6 |
18.4 |
3.4 |
14.3 |
Note: *PBT and EPS are normalised, excluding amortisation of acquired intangibles, exceptional items and share-based payments. **Restated due to IFRS to UK GAAP conversion, impacting goodwill amortisation.
Helios ended FY23 with £507m of capacity, up 71% on FY22 and slightly ahead of our forecast, which allowed for the delayed introduction of its innovative new mechanism to ‘rent’ up to £55m of capacity (see our April update note).
EPS of 21.6p represents a sharp turnaround from a (restated) loss of 3.1p and is 50% ahead of our 14.7p forecast, driven by super syndicate underwriting profit of £31.6m versus £0.1m and ahead of our forecast of £22.4m (with a combined ratio of 86% vs our forecast of 90%). This was driven by a much stronger-than-expected 2023 year of account (due to a benign catastrophe environment), delivering a return of capacity (RoC) of 1.9% versus the -0.2% we had forecast and the first positive current-year RoC seen since FY15.
NAV grew by 25% to 189p/share, slightly ahead of our forecast of 187p/share, largely driven by the share buyback programme reducing shares in issue more than we had allowed for.
Helios doubled its declared dividend from 3.0p to 6.0p in line with guidance. The company has stated that it will consider supplementing the basic dividend with special dividends based on performance and our (currently unchanged) forecasts are highly supportive of this in FY24 and FY25.
We note that over the year to 31 December 2023, Hudson Structured Capital Management reduced its holding in Helios from 16.2% to 11.2% and Odey Asset Management has dropped off the substantial shareholders list (from 9.9%). The overhangs due to these sell-offs had a meaningful impact on the Helios share price up until March 2024. We flag that further overhang risk remains.
While results are under review, we have made no changes to our EPS forecasts or our valuation of 280p/share as published in our 4 April NAV update note.
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Research: Healthcare
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