Blue Capital Reinsurance Holdings Ltd posted a $5 million profit to beat Wall Street estimates.

The company, which offers collateralised reinsurance and insurance-linked securities investments, said the net and operating income was 57 cents a share, exceeding the 52 cents forecast by analysts tracked Yahoo Finance.

Underwriting decisions, operations and other management services are provided to Blue Capital by Blue Capital Management Ltd, a subsidiary of Endurance Specialty Holdings Ltd.

The company said book value per common share was $20.44 at March 31, 2016, reflecting a 2.7 per cent increase for the quarter and an 11.5 per cent increase over the past 12 months, each inclusive of dividends.

Reinsurance premiums written were $17.4 million in the first quarter, a decline of $2.7 million, or 13.4 per cent, compared to the same period in 2015.

The company said this was “primarily due to a shift in the composition of the business to a greater proportion of quota share reinsurance”.

The combined ratio — the proportion of premium dollars spent on claims and expenses — was 52.2 per cent compared to 44.6 per cent in the first quarter of 2015.

Loss and loss adjustment expenses for totalled $1.7 million, comprising $1 million in first-quarter quarter losses and $0.7 million from adverse development on losses related to the December 2015 UK storms.

General and administrative expenses were $1.5 million, or $0.2 million higher than a year before, largely due to higher performance fees. Acquisition costs of $2.2 million declined 4.4 per cent from a year ago, as the transition to a greater proportion of quota share premiums led to reduced fronting expenses.

Blue Capital declared a dividend of 30 cents per common share, which was paid on April 15, 2016 and a special dividend of $1.24 per common share which was paid on March 15, 2016.

Adam Szakmary, Blue Capital’s chief executive officer, said: “Blue Capital’s strong results in a quarter marked by significant financial market volatility highlights the value of our strategy of providing investors with diversified access to the preferred traditional property-catastrophe market.”

Blue Capital’s shares fell 3 cents to close at $17.45 in New York yesterday.