Admiral boosts fixed-income asset allocation

05 March 2015

Admiral more than quadrupled its holdings in fixed-income and debt securities in 2014, while reiterating that it was maintaining its low‐risk investment strategy.

The UK-based insurer announced the asset allocation numbers in its 2014 results, which showed a pre-tax profit of £357m, down 4% on the £371m it made over 2013.

In 2013 Admiral had £202m in fixed income and debt securities, £1.4bn in money market funds, £288m in cash deposits and £187m in cash, totalling £2.08bn.

However, in 2014 this mix changed to just over £1bn in fixed income and debt securities, £909m in money market funds, £263m in cash deposits and £256m in cash, totalling £2.45bn.

Admiral said that the change had been made in order to increase yield without materially increasing risk and that it has not resulted in a material change in credit quality, with only a moderate increase in average duration, "due to the features of the underlying investments."

Admiral's investment and interest income in 2014 was £15.4m, up 8% on the £14.3m it made in 2013. The increase was due to higher average balances along with the increased allocation of funds to fixed income and other short-dated securities that took place in 2014.