Endurance Specialty Holdings Ltd’s profits rose 6 per cent in the first quarter as the company beast analysts’ estimates and benefited from the additional business gained from last year’s acquisition of Montpelier Re.

The Bermudian insurer and reinsurer reported net income of $106.4 million for the first quarter, compared to $100.3 million in the first three months of 2015.

Operating income of $84.4 million, or $1.26 per share was slightly higher than the $1.24 per share forecast by analysts tracked by Yahoo Finance, but 7.4 per cent lower than the first quarter of last year or 37.9 per cent lower on a per-share basis.

The company wrote more business in both its insurance and reinsurance segments. Gross premiums written totalled $1.6 billion, an increase of 23.8 per cent compared to the same period in 2015.

Net investment income was $11.2 million, a decrease of $30.7 million from the same period in 2015. As the company warned last month, its alternative investments suffered losses of $28.3 million, as compared to gains of $12.4 million in the first quarter of 2015.

Book value per diluted common share was $67.03 at March 31, 2016, up 2.4 per cent from the end of 2015.

John Charman, Endurance’s chairman and chief executive officer, said: “I am delighted with the excellent underwriting profitability that my colleagues in Endurance have generated in the first quarter.

“Our combined ratio of 77.9 per cent reflects both the continuing high quality of our global underwriting activity as well as the very successful integration of our acquisition of Montpelier.

“In addition to retaining nearly all the Montpelier business we had anticipated, our speedy and smooth operational integration has generated the planned expense synergies that are already clearly visible in our financial results.

“While global competition across both insurance and reinsurance has continued in line with our expectations, our unique execution, based on targeted, profitable growth, continues to be highly successful.

“This integrated, corporate underwriting strategy is driven daily by our market-leading underwriters implementing our very disciplined risk selection procedures. Endurance is now able to fully leverage the significant global investments that we have made over the last three years in people, products, geographies, systems and analytics to positively differentiate our underwriting performance and profitability regardless of how challenging market conditions may be.”