Aspen Insurance Holdings Ltd reported second-quarter net income of $64.9 million.

On a per-share basis, the Bermudian-based insurer and reinsurer said it had net income of 89 cents, up from 62 cents per share in corresponding quarter of 2015.

Operating earnings, adjusted for investment gains, came to 40 cents per share. That fell well short of the 69 cents per share estimate of analysts tracked by Yahoo Finance.

Chris O’Kane, Aspen’s chief executive officer, said: “Aspen achieved 7.7 per cent growth in diluted book value per share and annualised operating return on equity of 7 per cent in the first half of 2016. We delivered this in the face of an eventful second quarter impacted by higher losses from natural catastrophes and other events.

“However, on an accident year ex-catastrophe basis, the performance of both our insurance and reinsurance segments improved considerably. Our new leadership teams at Aspen Re and Aspen Insurance remain focused on disciplined underwriting, identifying and capturing attractive opportunities for profitable growth in our diversified businesses around the globe which, we believe, will create long-term value for our shareholders.”

Gross written premiums increased by 10.9 per cent to $801.7 million in the second quarter, compared to $722.8 million in the second quarter of 2015.

Aspen’s combined ratio — the proportion of premium dollars spent on claims and expenses — was 100.7 per cent for the second quarter of 2016 compared with 93.6 per cent for the second quarter of 2015.

Pre-tax catastrophe losses, net of reinsurance recoveries and $3.1 million of reinstatement premiums, totalled $65.1 million, or 10.1 combined ratio points, during the quarter, compared with $11.9 million in the corresponding period of 2015.