Bermuda specialist insurer Hiscox has paid out $55 million to buy a company which insures livestock.

And the Lloyd's insurer, which is listed in the UK but has redomiciled to the Island, also announced a good start to the year.

Hiscox recorded gross written premium to May up by 15 percent — "despite adverse exchange rates", said the company — to $590m ($1.2 billion).

The Bermuda company said it had agreed to buy Altoha, an Illinois-based company with two subsidiaries and assets of $45m. The two subsidiaries are American Live Stock Insurance Co., based in Geneva, Illinois, whose main business is providing mortality insurance for cattle and horses, and Harding & Harding Inc., an agency in Paris, Illinois.

The livestock insurance business yielded gross written premium income of $16.9m last year and managed net income of $4.2m.

Bronek Masojada, Hiscox chief executive officer, said: "Earlier in the year we said that in order to continue to develop our US business we would acquire an admitted insurance carrier when the right opportunity arose.

"The acquisition of Altoha is an excellent fit on all fronts. It gives us a carrier admitted in 50 states through which we can expand our existing US operations and product offering." Hiscox said the main driver of its growth had been catastrophe reinsurance, while the specialist regional business had shown steady progress.

Premium rates were softening, except for US catastrophe lines, said the company, but remained at a healthy level.

It expects to reduce capacity in its Lloyd's Syndicate 33 to $700m next year from this year's $875m to reflect softening rates.

Hiscox chairman Robert Hiscox said: "The year has started well. We are taking full advantage of the continuing strong catastrophe rates, and business is still very healthy in our regional specialist areas."