LONDON (Reuters) - Lloyd's of London insurer Chaucer said it would weigh up moving offshore for tax purposes later this year after reporting a return to profitability in 2009, helped by better investment returns.

Chaucer chief executive Bob Stuchberry said the company would look into shifting its headquarters to a country with lower corporate taxes in the third quarter, a move that would put it on a level footing with rivals such as Beazley and Brit Insurance, which have already relocated.

"If most of our peer group has already re-domiciled to a more favourable tax environment, that is a disadvantage to us. It's something as a board we have to give consideration to," Stuchberry told Reuters.

Any move was unlikely to take place until 2011 or 2012 and the company may decide not to relocate if doing so would be too disruptive, he said.

Beazley and Brit in the past year have moved to Ireland and the Netherlands, respectively, while other publicly quoted Lloyd's insurers, such as Catlin and Hiscox, are based in Bermuda.

Chaucer shares were down 0.5 percent at 47.25 pence, underperforming a 0.2 percent rise in the FTSE 250 share index.

Chaucer had a pretax profit of £42 million ($63.73 million) in 2009, compared to a loss of £26.2 million the previous year, it said.

The improvement reflected a turnaround in Chaucer's investment performance after the company sold risky investments in equities and hedge funds that led to big losses in 2008.

Chaucer had investment profits of £53.3 million in 2009 against a loss of £71 million the previous year.

"Chaucer has reported a solid set of results for 2009, demonstrating the group has fully recovered from its troubles of 2008," analysts at brokerage KBC Peel Hunt wrote in a note.

Chaucer is paying a total dividend of four pence per share, down from 5.5 pence.

Lloyd's of London insurers have mostly reported higher profits for 2009, helped by a lack of major hurricanes and stronger investment returns on the back of better financial markets. Amlin Hiscox beat expectations last week as they posted full-year profits.