They might have done very well selling Promina off last year, but it doesn’t appear to have done London-based Royal & Sun Alliance (RSA) a whole lot of good. Bucking the general trend towards more muscular profits, RSA has recorded a $358.2 million pre-tax loss for 2003.

Even so, the figure is considerably better than the group’s $2.3 billion loss for 2002, and RSA says the loss can be partially attributed to its US operations, which have been swept up in the rush to build higher reserves. RSA pumped $1.2 billion into its reserves for the US business – which suffered a $1.5 billion underwriting loss.

Last year RSA agreed to sell the renewal rights to most of its US commercial and standard personal lines, and in October it raised $2.3 billion in a rights issue – which was predominantly used to strengthen its US reserves.