The 2024 Lloyd's year of account absorbed two major hurricanes, the costliest marine liability loss on record and much of the Los Angeles wildfire bill. The syndicates are still making money.
Helios Underwriting, which describes itself as the only publicly traded company offering instant access to a diverse portfolio of Lloyd's syndicates, reported profit before tax of £11 million for the first half of 2026, up from £4.4 million a year earlier. The result was driven by an improvement in estimated syndicate profits.
Net asset value rose to £2.70 per share after a 10p dividend (7p base and 3p special), up from £2.63 at year end and £2.39 at the 2025 half year. That represents a total NAV return of 17p per share, or 6.5%, in the half. Helios received £40 million in net underwriting profits from the 2023 year of account in May and expects to return 24p per share to shareholders in 2026, including a forthcoming tender offer and share buybacks, compared with 20p in 2025.
"We have delivered an excellent performance in the period, increasing NAV total return by 6.5% in H1 2026," said chief executive Louis Tucker (pictured).
The more significant figures concern what the Lloyd's market absorbed to produce these results. Tucker said hurricanes Helene and Milton generated market-wide insured losses of about US$20 billion each, while the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapse in Baltimore "has developed into the costliest loss ever to have hit the marine liability insurance market."
Although the California wildfires occurred in early 2025, much of the estimated US$40 billion in losses falls to 2024 year policies. Despite that load, the mid-point forecast for the 2024 year of account improved during the half to 10.2% profit on capacity, which Tucker said demonstrated "the underlying strength of pricing adequacy."
The 2025 year is at an early stage of development, but Tucker said a lower incidence of major losses than in 2024 "augurs a strong result for the year."
Pricing across Lloyd's has been easing. Risk-adjusted rates fell 6.7% in the first half of 2026, nearly double the 3.5% reduction in the same period of 2025, even as gross written premium rose 6.9% to £34.7 billion on volume growth. The market's underlying combined ratio, which strips out the benefit of lower catastrophe losses and prior-year reserve releases, rose from 82.1% in H1 2025 to 84% in H1 2026. That trend points to a gradual erosion of rate adequacy rather than any deterioration in loss experience.
Tucker acknowledged the shift. "There has been softening of pricing levels in most classes of insurance over the past year, but rating remains robust," he said. Catastrophe losses in 2026 have so far been below recent averages, and while Lloyd's has incurred losses from the conflict in the Middle East, Tucker said these had been offset to some extent by improved rates and additional premiums for marine transits in the region.
Investment income is providing a further buffer. Tucker said higher bond yields, combined with the substantial reserves built up across the syndicates Helios supports, provide both protection against future losses and "an increasingly meaningful source of earnings." That source of profit was largely absent in the low-yield environment of the previous decade.
Lloyd's profits from a given year of account are recognised over three years, so brokers placing business today are working in a market still releasing the gains of the hard-market years. Helios expects the cash flow benefit of its 2024 and 2025 pipeline profits to arrive in 2027 and 2028 respectively.
That deferred recognition matters. Even as current-year pricing softens, the syndicates behind the Lloyd's market carry a substantial cushion of unrealised profits from years when underwriting discipline held firm. Lloyd's own guidance, published late in 2025, projected £67.4 billion in gross written premium for 2026 alongside a 91.2% combined ratio. That describes a market that remains structurally profitable, but one where the margin for discipline to slip is narrowing.
AM Best, assessing the Lloyd's reinsurance segment in September, said rates had moderated from a very strong peak but remained adequate. It added that profitability for the rest of the year would depend heavily on catastrophe experience and on how losses from the Middle East conflict develop. The question for brokers heading into 2027 renewals is whether underwriting discipline holds as competition for premium volume intensifies.
Helios itself is repositioning for that market. It plans to continue buying limited liability vehicles to increase its exposure to what it considers the strongest syndicates, while reducing debt with the help of reinsurance partners and profit distributions.
