Aspen Insurance Holdings Ltd last night gave early guidance on its second-quarter results — hours after its hostile takeover pursuer Endurance Specialty Holdings Ltd criticised its “underperformance”.

Last night’s pre-announcement — the final results are scheduled to be released on July 23 — stated that Aspen made earnings per share of between $1.70 and $1.75.

Operating earnings for the April through June period will come in at between $1.30 and $1.35 per share — above the $1.22 consensus of analysts tracked by Yahoo Finance.

Aspen’s combined ratio for the quarter is put in a range of 89 percent and 91 percent, while annualised operating return on equity is expected to be between 12 percent and 12.8 percent.

Chief executive officer Chris O’Kane said: “Our results this quarter reinforce the strong momentum evidenced by Aspen in the first quarter. The continued excellent performance across our businesses gives us confidence in the diversity, growth, quality and profitability of our platforms.”

Endurance, led by chairman and CEO John Charman, has made a cash-and-stock bid for Bermuda rival Aspen, worth around $3.2 billion. The offer has been rejected by the Aspen board and Endurance is now pursuing moves to expand the Aspen board from 12 to 19 directors as it aims to realise its takeover ambitions.

Both companies’ boards are now lobbying Aspen shareholders for their support, and Endurance has set a target date of July 25 for Aspen shareholders to vote on the board expansion plans.

After Endurance announced yesterday morning that it had sent its latest letter to Aspen shareholders, Aspen responded with the earnings pre-announcement and its third letter renouncing the takeover bid.

Endurance’s letter stated that Aspen had underperformed Endurance on the key metrics of combined ratio (underwriting profitability), diluted book value per share growth and share price performance over the past five years.

In its letter, Aspen argued that its accident-year combined ratio had bettered that of Endurance during four of the past five years and that the takeover offer was inadequate.