Lloyd's of London insurer Beazley will hire additional staff in Ireland to establish a European insurance company in Dublin after the Brexit vote, its chief executive has said.
The underwriter, which provides marine, casualty and property insurance and reinsurance, also reported a 3%rise in full-year pretax profit, defying analyst estimates for a decline.
It pointed to "significant" growth opportunities in the US and other markets outside London amid a challenging environment for insurers.
Higher investment returns and a strong underwriting performance helped to lift profit, the company said.
Beazley has been working to get European insurance licences for its existing Irish reinsurance business to allow it to operate on a broader basis throughout the EU.
Many London-listed insurers are drawing up plans to set up regulated subsidiaries in the EU due to the expected loss of rights to sell products across the bloc after Brexit and Beazley appears to be in the vanguard.
The insurer, which has offices in Oslo, Munich and Paris, said it applied to set up an insurance subsidiary in Dublin in November and regulators were reviewing its application .
"We're hopeful because we've been in Ireland for seven years. We hope we're are at the front of the queue," CEO Andrew Horton told Reuters.
"We are establishing our insurance company (in Dublin) irrespective of when the Brexit application goes in. We were already starting to do that even before we had the referendum in June," Mr Horton said.
He added Beazley chose Dublin as it was easier to make changes to an already existing business.
Industry observers say all insurers looking to set up EU subsidiaries have included Dublin among their options, attracted by its language, location and tax and regulatory systems.
Lloyd's of London's Neon Underwriting and Admiral have also pointed to Ireland as a possible new centre.
Andrew Horton said that the insurer was not planning to move jobs from Britain or anywhere else to Ireland but would hire locally.
"We're expecting to add jobs in Dublin because it will need more people to manage a live insurance company than a reinsurance company," he said, without specifying how many new jobs could be created.
Beazley's pretax profit rose 3% to $293.2m for the year ended December 31, higher than the $243m expected by analysts according to company-supplied consensus estimates.
