Beazley (BEZ) this morning reported what will almost certainly be its final set of results before Swiss giant Zurich (CH:ZURN) acquires it for £8.0bn.

The results themselves were not brilliant, as pre-tax profit more than halved year on year to $238mn (£177mn) after what chief executive Adrian Cox described as “rapidly softening conditions in the speciality insurance market”.

What effect are those rapidly softening conditions having? Firstly, Beazley is paying out on more policies in what it described as an “active large-loss environment”, including on cyber risk exposures and on its political violence and marine war books.

Beazley’s undiscounted combined ratio, a measure of operating profitability where lower is better, ticked up from 85 per cent to 93 per cent in the prior year as a result.

Secondly, the company is underwriting less new business. Beazley said that increased competition in certain markets, not least North America, was driving down pricing to unreasonable levels in the context of broader AI and geopolitical volatility.

As a result, it wrote just $3.05bn of new insurance premiums in the first half – a 4 per cent decline year on year. The most notable decline was in its cyber business, although the property and speciality businesses also weakened.

By contrast, Beazley underwrote more new business in its marine, accident and political divisions, perhaps unsurprisingly given the conflict in the Middle East.

Cox added that he was proud of Beazley’s momentum “in projects that will deliver long-term idiosyncratic growth”. Shareholders will have to participate in this growth as part of a wider company. Our rating remains withdrawn as the acquisition goes through its final stages.

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BEAZLEY (BEZ)    ORD PRICE:1,292pMARKET VALUE:£7.8bnTOUCH:1291-1292p12-MONTH HIGH:1,296pLOW: 750pDIVIDEND YIELD:1.9%PE RATIO:11NET ASSET VALUE: 815pCOMBINED RATIO:93%Half-year to 30 JunInsurance revenue ($bn)Pre-tax profit ($mn)Earnings per share (¢)Dividend per share (¢)20252.9350367.2nil20262.7323831.2nil% change-7-53-54-Ex-div:naPayment:na£1 = $1.35