Amlin is not looking for a buyer, its chief executive officer Charles Philipps said in a conference call yesterday.

The London-headquartered insurer and reinsurer, which has an office in Hamilton at 141 Front Street, has been the subject of buyout rumours amid a mergers and acquisitions spree in the industry.

But during the first-half earnings call with analysts, Mr Philipps asserted that Amlin was strong enough to remain a stand-alone company.

“We are not for sale, we are not running a sale process,” Mr Philipps said. “I am running a company that has big ambitions and we are trying to deliver on our strategy, full stop.”

Last month, Mr Philipps denied a report by British trade publication The Insurance Insider in July that said Amlin would be open to a sale if a buyer was willing to pay as much as $5 billion.

The earnings call came after Amlin reported pretax profit of £143.3 million in the first half of this year, down 3.5 per cent from a year earlier.

Gross premiums written rose by 6.2 per cent to just over £2 billion from £1.89 billion in the first half of 2014.

But Amlin said it saw “continued pressure” on reinsurance prices, with rates down 6.4 per cent on average.

US and international catastrophe rates fell by an average of 8.5 per cent and 10 per cent respectively, the statement showed. In Amlin’s marine and aviation business, rates tumbled 17 per cent for energy insurance and 5.9 per cent for liability.

“We have a compelling strategy and have the ability to fly as a stand-alone business,” said Philipps, who completed a restructure of the business in 2014 and is looking at other markets for growth including the Middle East. “We do not see urgent need to partner or team up with anybody else.”