RenaissanceRe Holdings made a profit of $183.2 million in the second quarter compared to $130.4m a year ago, up 39 percent.

The figure, which represents net income available to shareholders, equates to $2.53 per diluted share, up from $1.81.

Underlining RenRe's strength is an improvement in the company's combined ratio from 72.2 percent to 62.7 percent.

The company has quantified its expected losses as a result of the June floods in England as $41.4m. On the plus side it has enjoyed $59.1m of favourable development on prior year reserves within its underwriting segment.

Chief executive officer Neill Currie said: "We are pleased to report another quarter of strong financial performance with an annualised operating ROE of over 28 percent and 5.9 percent growth in book value per share. We generated solid underwriting profits, despite the UK floods, achieved strong investment income and participated in the creation of another new fully-collateralised joint venture during the quarter, Starbound II, which helped bring additional capacity to our clients."

RenRe put $10m into Starbound II, representing a 9.8 percent ownership interest. The venture allows RenRe to write additional property catastrophe excess of loss reinsurance business that it may not otherwise have been able to write "due to portfolio management or other considerations".

Mr. Currie added: "Our focus is on underwriting as much attractive business as possible rather than trying to achieve premium volume targets." RenRe's operating income for the quarter was $194.7m compared to $154.8m in the second quarter of 2006.