Endurance Specialty Holdings Ltd yesterday exceeded the expectations of Wall Street analysts as it posted net income of $75 million for the second quarter.

Chairman and chief executive officer John Charman said the benefits of the ongoing “transformation” of the company was becoming evident and was setting Endurance on a path to stronger performance.

Last week the company terminated its $3.2 billion offer for Bermuda insurance rival Aspen Insurance Holdings Ltd, after Aspen’s shareholders voted against Endurance’s proposals to make the hostile takeover possible.

Endurance’s net income broke down to $1.68 per diluted common share and compared to net income of $52.8 million, or $1.21 per diluted common share for the second quarter of 2013.

Operating earnings, which exclude after-tax realised investment gains and foreign exchange losses, were $71.9 million and $1.61 per share, beating the $1.53 consensus forecast of analysts tracked by Yahoo Finance. Operating return on average common equity for the quarter was 2.7 percent or 10.9 percent on an annualised basis.

For the six months ended June 30, 2014, Endurance reported net income of $171.3 million, or $3.84 per share, up from $144.9 million, or $3.34 per share for the first half of 2013.

Book value per diluted share was $60 at June 30, 2014, an increase of 4.3 percent from March 31, 2014 and up 8.7 percent from December 31, 2013.

The company saw a significant increase in second-quarter business, as gross premiums written climbing 20.4 percent to $689.4 million.

The combined ratio for the quarter was 88.1 percent, which included 11.3 percentage points of favourable prior year loss reserve development, 5.6 percentage points of catastrophe losses from 2014 events and 2.5 percentage points of expenses related to the proposed acquisition of Aspen.

Net investment income was $39.3 million, an increase of $6.8 million from the same period in 2013.

“I am very proud to report that Endurance has generated another solid quarter of financial results, demonstrating not only continuing profitable premium growth and broadly improved loss ratios across our expanded global businesses, but importantly strong growth in our book value per share,” Mr Charman said.

“The transformation of Endurance that we began just over a year ago is clearly visible in our overall operating and financial performance. With the core of our global underwriting leadership team now firmly in place and coordinating well, I believe that these positive, strategic improvements will continue to translate into stronger, more consistent performance in the future.”

At June 30, 2014, Endurance’s shareholders’ equity was $3.12 billion or $60 per share, versus $2.89 billion, or $55.18 per diluted common share at the end of last year.

Endurance paid out a 34 cents per share dividend for the second quarter.