Bermuda-based insurer Endurance Specialty yesterday posted profits of $115 million for the second quarter of the year ? a healthy 72 percent jump on the nearly $67 million the company earned a year prior despite business levels falling off during the period.

Chairman and CEO Kenneth LeStrange ? who has led the company since it set up on the Island in late 2001 as one of a wave of insurers to open their doors to take advantage of improved business conditions after a void in capacity following the September 11 terrorist attacks ? attributed the company?s ?superb results? to a number of factors including underwriting discipline and a low level catastrophic activity during the quarter.

He said: ?Endurance achieved superb results this quarter. Our diversified business mix, strong risk selection and our commitment to disciplined underwriting continue to drive strong returns on equity and growth in book value per share,? he said.

However, the company did see their gross premiums written fall to $350.7 million for the quarter ended June 30, a decrease of 46.3 percent from the $652.7 million in gross premiums written and acquired during the same period of 2003.

Although the industry is generally seeing business slow along a number of lines, Endurance attributed the decrease in business written during the second quarter to one portfolio being renewed in the first quarter even though the business was acquired last year during the same period in 2003.

In a Press statement, Endurance said: ?The decrease in written premiums is due to the fact that much of the business obtained from the Hart Re portfolio acquisition in the second quarter of 2003 was renewed during the first quarter of 2004. This timing shift has resulted in a year-over-year decrease in written premiums during the second quarter of 2004.?

The company revealed that year-on-year, it had written $1 million more business during the first half of the year than it did during the same six months last year.

Endurance said it had written gross premiums of $1.1 billion from January through June this year which was an increase from the $1 billion of gross written premiums in the first half of 2003.

Earned premiums in the quarter were reportedly up 35.4 percent to $396 million, an increase of 35.4 percent from the second quarter of 2003.

The company also indicated that it had made more per underwriting dollar than last year with a combined ratio for the second quarter, 2004 of 76.9 percent compared to 84.2 percent in the second quarter of 2003.