QBE shares takes a dive after warning

QBE shares took an 11 percent dive at the close of the market yesterday, June 29, following another profits warning from the Australian insurer.

The insurer warned that its profits will be impacted by a claims reserve strengthening of around $170 million in Latin America, primarily related to QBE’s Argentine workers compensation business.

QBE now expects its combined ratio to hit 96 to 97 percent, compared with expectations of around 93 percent and the group’s insurance profit margin to be 7 to 8 percent, compared with expectations of 10 percent.

It added that it expects its net profit after tax for the first half of 2014 to be around $390 million and gross written premium to be around $8.5 billion, below its budget of $8.9 billion for the half of 2014.