Bermuda headquartered insurance and reinsurance firm Hiscox has withdrawn all its financial guidance and targets for 2020, citing the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic.
Hiscox also said this morning that it will not pay dividends in the currently challenging and uncertain environment.
The company will not present a resolution to approve its 2019 final dividend of 29.6 cents per share at its upcoming Annual General Meeting (AGM), which was scheduled for payment on 10 June 2020.
In addition, no proposals will be made for an interim dividend, or share buy-back at this time.
Hiscox said these decisions will help it to “serve the needs of businesses and households through the extraordinary challenges presented by COVID-19.”
The Board of Hiscox made the decisions with the support of its regulators, in direct response to the pandemic.
The company said that its capital, “liquidity and funding positions remain strong.”
In addition, Hiscox noted this morning that trading across the group for the first two months of 2020 was ahead of expectations.
But despite this, Hiscox is clearly aware of the potential hit to its business as a result of the coronavirus.
“In view of the uncertain impact of COVID-19 on the global economy, the Group is unable to accurately forecast the outlook for 2020. As such, we are withdrawing all financial guidance for 2020 until there is more clarity,” the company explained.
Adding, “We remain confident in our ability to return to our normal 90-95% combined ratio target range for the Retail business in 2022.”
No mention of a combined ratio forecast for the reinsurance or commercial insurance businesses at Hiscox was made.
In addition, Hiscox said that no executive Director bonuses will be paid until the dividend has resumed.
