Aspen Insurance Holdings Limited has reported profits of $75.8 million, or $1.07 per share, for the second quarter.

That is $11.8 million up on the $64 million, or 89 cents per share, recorded for the same period last year.

Chris O’Kane, chief executive officer, said: “With a strong regional network and deep local relationships, the Aspen Re team has been able to capture new opportunities and again deliver strong results in an operating environment that remains challenging.

“The Aspen insurance team continued to make progress, showing significant profitable growth in areas such as excess casualty, environmental liability, professional liability and related lines.

“I am pleased that our investment performance contributed positively to diluted book value per share growth.”

The Aspen insurance segment had gross written premiums of $486.5 million, up 3.7 per cent on the $469.1 million recorded for the same quarter in 2016.

The increase was attributed to increases in the financial and professional lines area, offset by decreases in the property and casualty and marine, aviation and energy segments.

The company’s reinsurance gross written premiums were $335.6 million, up 0.9 per cent on the $332.6 million figure from a year ago.

Aspen said more business in the speciality sub-segment was the main reason, but that was offset by decreases in property catastrophe, other property and casualty areas.

The company’s combined loss ratio fell year-on-year from 66 per cent to 61.6 per cent.

Investment income for the second quarter dropped 1.3 per cent from $48 million to $47.4 million.

Total shareholders’ equity stood at $3.6 billion at the end of June.