RSA 9mth premium income edges up despite Zurich bid "distraction"

LONDON, Nov 5 (Reuters) - British insurer RSA 's underlying premium income rose by 1 percent in the first nine months of 2015, it said on Thursday, calling Zurich Insurance (LSE: 0QP2.L - news) 's abandoned bid for the company a "distraction" in the third quarter.

RSA, best known in Britain for its More Than insurance brand, said core net written premiums in the first nine months rose to 4.4 billion pounds ($6.77 billion) from a year earlier. Tangible net asset value rose by 4 percent to 3 billion pounds at Sept 30 from the previous quarter.

"Zurich's unsolicited approach to RSA was a distraction in Q3," Chief Executive Stephen Hester said in a trading statement.

"Our restructuring actions are paving the way to further improvement in sustainable performance levels."

Zurich Insurance, which walked away from a proposed 5.6 billion pound ($8.61 billion) bid for the UK firm in September due to weakness in its general insurance business, reported a 79 percent year-on-year drop in third-quarter profit on Thursday.

Analysts at JP Morgan Cazenove said RSA's results were "reassuring", with premiums in line with their forecast and tangible net asset value above forecast. They reiterated their neutral rating on the stock. ($1 = 0.6502 pounds) (Reporting by Carolyn Cohn, editing by Sinead Cruise)