Aspen Insurance Holdings Ltd beat analysts’ expectations as it posted net income of $30.8 million for the first quarter.

The Bermudian insurer and reinsurer’s operating income after tax totalled $63 million, or 91 cents per share, beating the 74 cents consensus forecast of analysts tracked by Yahoo Finance.

Net income plunged by more than two-thirds, compared to the $96.5 million Aspen posted in the first quarter of 2017.

Chris O’Kane, Aspen’s chief executive officer, said: “The first quarter of 2018 was the first in Aspen’s history in which we wrote more than a billion dollars of premium.

“Our strong results include gross written premium growth across both Aspen Re and Aspen Insurance as a result of our targeted growth strategy.

“Both segments generated underwriting profits, we improved our total expense ratio and we continue to implement our operational effectiveness and efficiency programme.”

Gross written premiums of rose 11.9 per cent to $1.12 billion in the first quarter of 2018.

Growth came from the both insurance, which saw a 14 per cent increase in gross premiums to $493.3 million, and reinsurance, which rose 10.3 per cent to $623.5 million.

Pre-tax catastrophe losses totalled $24.2 million, net of reinsurance recoveries, in the first quarter, relating mostly to weather events including Winter Storm Friederike.

General and administrative expenses were $108.9 million in the first quarter of 2018, compared with $119.1 million a year earlier.

The total return on Aspen’s aggregate investment portfolio was minus 0.9 per cent and reflects net realised and unrealised gains and losses, mainly in the fixed income portfolio.

Aspen said it took advantage of rising equity markets in the first quarter of 2018 and sold its equity portfolio.