Aspen Insurance Holdings has blown analysts’ expectations out of the water after doubling first quarter profits.

The company’s results are the most outstanding year-on-year improvement yet reported by a Bermuda insurance and reinsurance company for the opening three months of 2007.

Aspen’s profits soared 97 percent from $61.8 million to $121.9 million despite the value of gross premiums written falling $42 million to $636.5 million. Net written premiums improved from $451.9 million to $555.1 million according to the company.

Chris O’Kane, chief executive officer, said: “I am delighted to report an excellent first quarter, with all our product segments performing well and a very strong contribution from investments. In addition we have recently announced a number of significant new appointments to our management team, including Glyn Jones as chairman, Richard Houghton as CFO with two outstanding underwriting talents, Nathan Warde and Matt Yeldham assuming leadership roles for our insurance operations. I look forward to working with them as we build on a terrific start to the year.”

The company’s combined ratio improved to 79.4 percent compared to 90.4 percent a year ago.

The first quarter net earnings work out at $1.27 a share compared to 59 cents a share in the year-ago period. Analysts polled by Thomson Financial were expecting, on average, a per-share profit of 86 cents.