The Australia and NZ arm of Jardine Lloyd Thompson (JLT) has produced more than half of the global broker’s retail trading profit for the first half of the year.

The Australasian operation delivered a £17.5 million ($30.2 million) trading profit and £56.1 million ($97 million) in revenue, which was up 24% on the same period last year.

JLT’s total retail trading profit for the half was £32.5 million ($56.1 million) and its total revenue was £132.3 million ($228.6 million), up 24%.

CEO Dominic Burke says the first-half results were “encouraging”.

“Coupled with the increasing benefits from the broad range of investments being made, comprising of key hires, acquisitions and system developments, it gives us the confidence that we will continue to make financial progress for the full year,” he said.

JLT Australia MD Leo Demer told insuranceNEWS.com.au the result demonstrates the company’s “different approach”.

“[Other leading brokers] compete with each other for business, and there’s often cheap fees involved,” he said.

“We always quote competitively and we don’t try to be all things to all men. We concentrate on the things we’re good at.”

Asia was the next strongest region for JLT, producing retail revenues of £29.7 million ($51.3 million) and a trading profit of £6.3 million ($10.8 million).

The strongest retail revenue growth was in Latin America, up 57% to £19.9 million ($34.3 million) with a trading profit of £5.7 million ($9.8 million).

JLT’s London market total revenue was up 11% to £164.1 million ($283.5 million) and trading profit was up 26% to £42.7 million ($73.8 million) for the half year.

The total revenue for JLT globally was £377.8 million ($652.5 million), which was up 21% on the corresponding period last year.

The profit before tax was £70 million ($121 million), an increase of 14%.

Mr Burke says the outlook for the next six months will be challenging, because the insurance rating environment is softening across most sectors.

“We highlighted [in April] the US domestic insurance market for general property and casualty risks was the softest we have seen since the events of September 11 2001,” he said. 

“At the end of July the situation remains largely unchanged, with the exception of specialty areas of the aviation and offshore energy markets, which are not representative of the market as a whole.”