Canopius Group Ltd. posted a pretax profit of £49 million ($73.9 million) for 2012, compared with a loss of £61 million ($95.6 million) for 2011, the company announced yesterday.The privately held Guernsey-based insurer and reinsurer, whose Bermuda operations have just sold to Tower Group, said its combined ratio was 95 percent for 2012 compared with 111 percent for the previous year.Canopius said its gross written premiums increased by 12 percent to £692 million ($1.04 billion) in 2012.Michael Watson, executive chairman of Canopius said 2012 was a transformational year for the company.“We successfully completed our fourth acquisition of a Lloyd’s business — Omega — boosting our premiums under management by 40 percent and our financial resources by 35 percent; we established a new executive team led by Inga Beale, Group CEO; and, following a review of our strategy, created three business units that will be the engine of our future growth.“Our results were excellent despite a double hit from Superstorm Sandy following the inclusion of Omega’s results for the fourth quarter,” Mr Watson said.“Our underlying return on equity was 19 percent and our combined ratio 92 percent, while the acquisition of Omega has provided significant premium growth, enhanced our standing in core classes, and increased our geographic spread.”