Maiden Holdings Ltd boosted its profits by 42.6 percent during the first quarter of 2011 as most parts of the business grew.The Bermuda insurer’s net income was $19.3 million versus $13.6 million for the same period in 2010. Earnings per diluted share of $0.27 increased 42.1 percent from 19 cents in the first quarter last year.Operating earnings for the quarter totalled $19.8 million, or 27 cents per share compared with $16.2 million or 23 cents per share in the first quarter of 2010. The operatings earnings beat Bloomberg analysts’ estimates of 23 cents per share.“At Maiden, we generated solid underwriting, net income, and operating performance while continuing to increase our book value,” said Art Raschbaum, president and CEO of Maiden Holdings.“Importantly, the quarter reflects continuing success in implementing our business model of delivering stable results for our shareholders as we remain focused on serving the non catastrophe needs of regional and specialty insurers. As we communicated earlier this year, Maiden expects minimal, if any, losses from the significant global catastrophe events of the first quarter of 2011.”He continued: “Our first quarter reflects the completion of the first full year of our strategic quota share with ACAC and our first full quarter from our newly acquired international operations, both of which performed in line with our expectations. We believe we are well positioned to continue to deliver long-term value for our shareholders.”Maiden’s shareholders’ equity was $769.7 million while its book value per share stood at $10.67 at March 31, 2011 both up 2.6 percent from year end 2010.Net written premium totalled $449.5 million compared with $311.3 million in the first quarter of 2010, while the company’s net earned premium of $346.5 million increased 31.3 percent from $263.9 million for the same period last year.The insurer’s net investment income of $19.1 million grew 8.9 percent from $17.6 million in the first quarter of 2010.Commission and other acquisition expenses together with general and administrative expenses of $119.4 million increased $33.4 million from the previous year and reflected a total expense ratio of 34 percent compared with 32.6 percent in 2010. General and administrative expenses for the quarter totalled $12.3 million compared with $8.6 million in last year’s first quarter.The combined ratio for the first quarter was 97 percent compared with 97.1 percent in the first quarter of 2010. The company declared a dividend of seven cents per share.