Aspen Insurance Holdings raked in a net income of $37.4 million after tax in the third quarter of the year.

The news came as the firm released its latest quarterly figures — equal to 42 cents net income per share — to the end of September.

Aspen CEO Chris O’Kane said: “During the third quarter we continued to execute our strategy to increase ROE and shareholder value with good operating results, opportunistic share repurchases and further rebalancing of our investment portfolio.

“Reinsurance had another very strong quarter and continues to successfully navigate a dynamic market. Insurance continued to evidence momentum, with our US insurance teams continuing to make strong progress in building out the platform through profitable growth.”

And Mr O’Kane added: “As we enter the final quarter of 2014 we are well positioned to comfortably exceed our ten percent return on equity (ROE) target for the year.

“We will continue to focus on ROE improvement in 2015 and beyond.”

The firm reported gross written premiums increased by 12.2 percent to $625 million in the quarter compared to the same period the previous year, with growth in both insurance and reinsurance sectors.

Reinsurance gross written premiums were $256.9 million, 17 percent up on the $219.5 million recorded for the same period in 2013.

The report said: “The growth in gross written premiums was primarily due to increased production and new business in other property.”

In the insurance arm of the business, gross written premiums were $395.6 million, up more than nine percent from the $362.1 million logged for the third quarter of 2013.

The report said: “The increase in gross written premiums was attributable to property and casualty and financial and professional lines, primarily resulting from the continued growth from the US teams.

“The US insurance teams were again profitable in the quarter and through the first nine months of 2014 have achieved a loss ratio of 59.4 percent.”

And at the end of the quarter, total shareholders’ equity stood at $3.4 billion.

The Aspen board of directors also declared a quarterly cash dividend of 20 cents per ordinary share.