Aspen Insurance Holdings Ltd last night reported net income after tax of $130.8 million, or $1.82 diluted net income per share, for the quarter ended June 30, 2014.

The Bermuda re/insurer highlighted its annualised operating return on equity (ROE) of 12.8 percent, diluted operating income per share of $1.40 — a 122.2 percent increase from the second quarter of 2013 — and diluted book value per share of $44.84, up 9.6 percent from the end of last year.

The company is a hostile takeover target for Bermuda rival Endurance Specialty Holdings Ltd, which remains undeterred after having had a $3.2 billion cash-and-stock offer rejected by the Aspen board.

Aspen chief executive officer Chris O’Kane said: “Aspen’s strong, high-quality results for the second quarter and first half of 2014 demonstrate the benefits of the investments we have made in our business, our operating focus and our successful strategy to manage a dynamic market. The combination of top-line growth, sound underwriting, impressive performance in our reinsurance business and increasing scale in the US Insurance platform is driving increases in ROE and book value per share.

“Going forward we expect our operating leverage to continue to increase with premiums growing across many lines and at a faster rate than both expenses and allocated capital. Improving operating leverage will drive an increase in ROE which will enable us to continue to enhance shareholder value.”

Aspen said operating highlights for the quarter included gross written premiums which increased overall by 13.4 percent to $779.3 million from the second quarter of 2013. Gross written premiums in reinsurance were flat and insurance increased by 23.7 percent.

Aspen’s combined ratio of 90.1 percent for the second quarter of 2014 compared with 97.1 percent for the second quarter of 2013. And there were $22.1 million, or 3.6 combined ratio points, of pre-tax catastrophe losses net of reinsurance recoveries and reinstatement premiums.