Axis Capital Holdings Limited made a profit of $63 million, or 75 cents per share, in the first quarter, compared to $5 million, or 6 cents per common share, for the corresponding quarter in 2017.

The Bermudian company’s operating income for the quarter was $123 million, up from $51 million in the first three months of last year.

Albert Benchimol, CEO of Axis Capital, said: “Over the past several years, Axis has taken action to become a relevant and leading player in a select number of attractive specialty insurance and reinsurance markets, positioned to deliver superior results across a wide range of market conditions.

“This quarter’s results demonstrate the benefits of our portfolio optimisation initiatives and overall earnings potential, highlighted by broad-based improvement in underwriting profitability across our operations.

“Our efforts to realise Axis’ potential are generating traction. Earlier this year we launched a new phase of our transformation efforts, an enterprise-wide programme to further modernise all of our functions and position Axis to lead in a transforming industry.

“We are focused on getting better, smarter, and faster in serving our clients and partners in distribution. We will, on the one hand, be more efficient in the delivery of our differentiated services, and on the other, invest in greater analytics, technology and development for our staff.

“Through the combined impact of the Novae integration and our transformation efforts, we expect to deliver savings of $100 million by year-end 2020, even as we continue to invest in leading capabilities.”

The company’s combined ratio fell to 90.8 per cent, improving from 102.1 per cent for the same period in 2017.