Motor insurance giant Direct Line has raised its dividend by almost a third after hitting four targets set out when it listed more than two years ago.
The FTSE 100 company was spun out of Royal Bank of Scotland in October 2012 and has seen its share price rise from 175p to 335p, where it stands today.
Boss Paul Geddes said the group planned to pay a special dividend of 4p a share, taking its total payout from 20.6p in 2013 to 27.2p this year.
Geddes said the underwriting and cost targets had either been met or beaten.
Overall, Direct Line, whose brands include Churchill and Green Flag and whose ads star Harvey Keitel, saw pre-tax profits rise 12.2% to £457 million last year.
That was despite a “highly competitive market place”, characterised by falling prices and rising claims.
Its combined ratio fell by 0.2 to 95%. This measures underwriting profitability with a figure below 100% effectively meaning an insurer took in more in premiums than it paid out in claims.
Last year, Direct Line also agreed to sell its overseas business to Mapfre for €550 million (£430 million).
“After paying the regular and special dividends for 2014, we will have returned a total of £836 million to shareholders since we began life as a public company,” Geddes said.
