Hiscox Re, the reinsurance business and third-party capital platform of specialist insurer Hiscox, generated profit before tax of $286.7 million in 2025, an increase of 7% on the prior year, as the segment’s undiscounted combined ratio strengthened to 67.4%.
The global specialty insurer’s reinsurance arm delivered insurance contract written premium (ICWP) of $1.094 billion in 2025, an increase of 6% on the prior year’s $1.032 billion, driven by net growth and increased third-party capital support. Net ICWP rose by 8% year-on-year to $538.7 million, with growth in pro-rata and specialty lines, including parametric climate resilience, mortgage and surety.
Hiscox Re’s insurance service result increased to $189.4 million in 2025 from $165.7 million in 2024, as the undiscounted combined ratio strengthened by 1.6 percentage points, aided by a benign second half of the year in terms of natural catastrophe losses.
Throughout 2025, Hiscox Re saw rates decline by 5% amid heightened competition, notably in property catastrophe, although importantly, “attachment points and terms and conditions remained broadly stable.” At year-end 2025, cumulative rate increases since 2018 were 83%.
At the January 1st, 2026, reinsurance renewal, Hiscox Re says that rates declined by 13% on the back of competition from both incumbent reinsurers and alternative capital, but the firm notes that “the portfolio remains rate adequate following significant rate increases since 2018.”
Insurance-linked securities (ILS) assets under management increased from $1.4 billion at January 1st, 2025, to $1.5 billion at January 1st, 2026, with the business attracting inflows of more than $300 million from new and existing partners over the course of the year, which Hiscox says offset planned returns and increased the level of deployable capital at the January renewals. During 2025, the firm’s third-party capital platform generated $109.4 million of fee income from ILS and quota-share partners, compared with $128.2 million in 2024.
Turning to Hiscox London Market, ICWP increased to $1.249 billion in 2025 from $1.229 billion in 2024, as net ICWP rose to $880.9 million from $879.7 million. The business generated an insurance service result of $160.3 million in 2025, up on the prior year’s $141.3 million. Profit before tax rose to $255.3 million from $215 million, as the undiscounted combined ratio came down from 88.6% to 85.9%.
At Hiscox Retail, ICWP increased to $2.634 billion in 2025 from $2.441 billion in 2024, while net ICWP rose to $2.446 billion from $2.434 billion. The segment’s insurance service result increased to $267.4 million for 2025 from the prior year’s $261.1 million. Profit before tax hit $352.1 million, an increase on the prior year’s $317.2 million, with an undiscounted combined ratio of 92.6%, down slightly on 2024’s 92.9%.
Group-wide, Hiscox generated ICWP of $4.979 billion in 2025, up on the prior year’s $4.703 billion, as net ICWP increased to $3.865 billion from $3.622 billion.
The underwriting performance was strong for the year with an insurance service result of $613.9 million for 2025, compared with $553.5 million in 2024. The Group undiscounted combined ratio strengthened to 87.8% from 89.2%, while the insurer also benefitted from positive prior year reserve development of $292.7 million, compared with $145.5 million in 2024. The Group investment result also improved year-on-year, to $442.7 million from $383.9 million.
All in all, Hiscox generated profit before tax of $732.7 million in 2025, an increase on 2024’s $685.4 million.
“2025 was a pivotal year for Hiscox as we delivered another strong performance and made excellent progress in executing our growth and change strategy. In Hiscox Retail, we have achieved multi-year growth and margin expansion through new products, deeper distribution, the deployment of new technologies and execution of our change programme. Our retail markets present a large and attractive opportunity with a long runway of growth on which we are executing at pace. In big-ticket, our specialist expertise and technology capabilities have enabled us to launch new business initiatives, more than offsetting the dynamics of our cycle management actions. We are executing on our strategic agenda, and our commitment to underwriting excellence remains at the core,” said Aki Hussain, Group Chief Executive Office, Hiscox.
“Innovation across the Group is accelerating, with more product launches this year than over the previous five years, and employee engagement remains at an all-time high. Our change programme is firmly on track, building capabilities to improve service and productivity.
“This strong performance and strategic execution enable us to reward shareholders, with the final dividend per share increasing by 20% for a second consecutive year and a third consecutive share buyback launched, taking the combination of shareholder returns through dividends and buybacks announced over the last three years to over $1.1 billion.
“We are a leading pure-play specialty insurer with a diverse and balanced business, uniquely positioned to seize the opportunities in front of us and deliver value to our shareholders. We are firmly on track to deliver our strategic initiatives and the guidance set out at our Capital Markets Day in May 2025, and I want to thank all my colleagues for their continued hard work in driving Hiscox forward,” he added.
