Results Round-up

LONDON (ShareCast) - Insurance group Lancashire Holdings said pre-tax profit declined in the first quarter, but it remained better equipped to deal with pressure on insurance rates than its sector peers. The FTSE 250 group reported an 11% drop year-on-year in pre-tax profit to $51.5m (£33.4m) for the three months to 31 March, while gross premium written dropped 22.9% to $244.3m and expenses fell 2.7% to $115.5m.

In a statement released on Thursday, group chief executive Alex Maloney said pricing was under pressure across the board during the first quarter, adding he thought the company was "better positioned" than many of its competitors.

Investment return, including net investment income, net other investment income, net realised gains and losses, impairments and net change in unrealised gains and losses, jumped to $21.4m from $7.9m in the corresponding period of 2014.

Net investment income, excluding realised and unrealised gains and losses, rose 7% to $7.6m.

Copper miner KAZ Minerals (LSE: KAZ.L - news) said it was on track to meet its production guidance for the year, despite a decline in first-quarter sales.

In the first three months of 2015, the FTSE 250 group reported a 9.9% decline year-on-year in production to 19.1 kilotonnes of copper cathode, which represented a 20.7% decrease from the previous quarter.

The Kazakhstan-focused miner said sales of copper cathode fell 13% year-on-year to 17.8 kilotonnes in the first three months of 2015, as a decline in production and a build-up of finished goods inventory had a negative impact.

In a statement released on Thursday, KAZ warned copper production could be hit by scheduled maintenance to one of its two furnaces at its Balkash smelter.

Meanwhile, lower production in the quarter saw sales of zinc in concentrate decline 20.4% in the period, while gold bar sales plunged 32.6% also because of a decline in production.