Axis Capital Holdings Ltd beat analysts’ estimates as it recorded second-quarter net income of $93 million.

The Bermudian-based insurer and reinsurer’s profit broke down to $1.11 per share and compared to net income of $85 million in the second quarter of 2017.

Operating income was $106 million, or $1.27 per share, beating the $1.17 per share consensus forecast of analysts tracked by Yahoo Finance.

“As a result of our strong market position, we continue to attract and retain high-quality business, allowing us to deliver better risk adjusted returns despite ongoing challenging market conditions,” Albert Benchimol, chief executive officer of Axis, said.

“In recent years, Axis has taken a series of actions to improve efficiency and position the company to be profitable under a wide range of market conditions.

“Our team’s efforts continue to gain real traction towards building a unique and differentiated hybrid underwriting platform that will drive long-term profitable growth.

“We still have plenty of work ahead of us, but we are showing encouraging results.

“We have a sound strategy focusing on attractive specialty lines, leadership and relevance in key markets, and a talented team focused on delivering outstanding expertise and service to our customers and partners in distribution, and superior results to our shareholders.

“As long as we remain focused on the steadfast execution of our strategy, the future for Axis is very exciting.”

Gross premiums written increased by $288 million, or 21 per cent, to $1.7 billion, with an increase of 34 per cent in the insurance segment, primarily attributable to the acquisition of Novae Group.

The underwriting result benefited from favourable prior-year reserve development of $60 million, down from $71 million in the second quarter of 2017.

Axis said it expects to deliver run-rate cost savings of $100 million related to its transformation initiative and the integration of Novae.

“To deliver $100 million of savings across the transformation initiative and the Novae integration by year-end 2020, the company expects to incur cumulative pre-tax reorganisation expenses of approximately $100 million, of which a total of $48 million has already been incurred since the third quarter 2017,” Axis stated.

Adjusted for dividends, diluted book value per common share increased by 29 cents, or 1 per cent, for the quarter and decreased by $6.43 or 11 per cent, over the past 12 months.