Beatriz Izard
Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us today. We are pleased to welcome you to Línea Directa's first half 2026 results presentation.
I am joined by our CFO, Carlos Rodríguez Ugarte, who will take you through the main highlights of the period, followed by the Q&A session. Carlos, over to you.
Carlos Rodríguez Ugarte
Thank you very much, Beatriz, and good morning to everyone on the call. We are pleased to present a strong first half for Línea Directa, combining growth, improved technical margins, and a robust solvency position.
Let me start with the key numbers for the period shown on the first slide of the deck. Gross written premiums reached €609.3 million, up 9.2% year-on-year, with all business lines contributing to our growth.
The portfolio stood at 3.86 million risk, 7.8% higher than in June 2025, after adding close to 278,000 risk over the last 12 months. Technical profitability continued to improve, with a combined ratio of 91.1%, 1.2 percentage points better than in the first half of 2025.
Net profit increased by 19% to €52.1 million, supported by higher volumes, better underwriting performance, and efficiency. Return on equity stood at 23.3%, while the Solvency II ratio fortified to 196.3%, already reflecting the €18 million first interim dividend for the year.
I will now go through the main drivers of this first-half performance. On page number seven, premiums increased by 9.2%, supported by growth across the group.
The customer portfolio also expanded by 7.8% year-on-year, with around 60,000 additional risk added in the second quarter alone. This growth was accomplished by an even further improvement in technical profitability.
The combined ratio stood at 91.1% and improved further to 19.6% in the standalone second quarter. Expense ratio improved to 20.2%, reflecting scale benefits, operating discipline, and continued efficiency gains.
The investment result reached €21.8 million, driven by higher income from both the fixed income and equity portfolios. As a result, profit after taxes reached €52.1 million, up 19% year-on-year.
Turning to volumes, Motor remained the main contributor to growth, while Health and emerging businesses continued to show strong momentum. Moving to page number nine, the combined ratio reflects the balance between underwriting discipline, claims frequency control, and a large operating base.
On the loss ratio, performance remained well-controlled across the main business lines, supported by an excellent second quarter performance in both Motor and Home. On the expense ratio, the improvement reflects increase in scale, operating leverage, and productivity gains while maintaining investment in the capabilities that support future growth.
Efficiency remains a structural strength of the model and a key lever for protecting profitability as the business continues to grow. Now, I would like to move on to a more detailed breakdown by line of business.
In Motor, premiums exceed €490 million, growing by 9.8% year-on-year. The portfolio added more than 222,000 policies over the last 12 months, including 59,000 in the second quarter standalone.
Technical profitability remained excellent, with a combined ratio of 91.1% in the first half, 0.9 percentage points better year-on-year, and 19.8% in the standalone second quarter. The Home line delivered moderate growth, with premiums up 2% and the portfolio increasing 3.7% year-on-year.
Profitability in the segment was particularly strong, with a combined ratio of 86.6% in the first half, improving by 2.3 percentage points, and 83.9% in the standalone second quarter. Let's move to page number 12.
Health maintained strong commercial traction. Premiums increased by 17.7% to €28.9 million, while the portfolio reached more than 128,000 policies, 10.4% above June 2025.
We continue to shift toward more comprehensive products, with complete and specialty products now counting for almost 68% of the portfolio. From a technical perspective, the combined ratio improved by 8.6 percentage points to 125.1%, showing gradual progress towards technical breakeven.
Moving to next page, the financial investment result increased by 5.2%, mainly driven by higher income in both the fixed income and equity portfolios. By contrast, the real estate contribution reflects the temporary impact of the renovation of one building.
Works are expected to be completed by year-end 2026, with rental income resuming in June 2027 under updated market conditions. Taking both effects together, the net investment result declined by 1.8%.
Excluding this one-offs of impact, it would have increased by 5%. Turning to page number 14, the investment portfolio remained heavily balanced in fixed income, with a measured reduction in equity exposure during the period.
This allocation reflects the group disciplined investment approach, focused on preserving financial strength while maintaining a prudent risk profile. The portfolio delivered a return of 275 basis points, while the fixed income portfolio duration stood at 3.5 years.
Turning to solvency, the Solvency II ratio stood at 196.3% at the end of June, reflecting a very strong capital position. Own funds increased mainly as a result of solid organic capital generation during the first half and the positive revaluation of the investment portfolio to equity.
This increase was partially offset by the deduction of the €18 million interim dividend. On the SCR, market risk reflects lower equity exposure offset by the increase in the symmetric adjustment, while non-life, health, and operational risk evolved in line with business growth.
Counterparty risk also increased, mainly due to higher health receivables and reinsurance recoverables. To conclude, first-half results show that Línea Directa continues to combine growth with technical discipline, efficiency, and a very strong balance sheet.
Looking ahead, our priorities remain crystal clear: maintaining profitability growth, protect technical margins, and continue leveraging efficiency as a core competitive advantage. I will now hand the call over to Beatriz to begin the Q&A sessions.
Beatriz Izard
Thank you, Carlos. Our line is now open for questions.
Operator
Ladies and gentlemen, we will now begin the Q&A session. If you like to ask a question, please press *5 on your telephone keypad.
If you change your mind, please press *5 again. Please ensure that your devices are unmuted locally before proceeding with your question.
The first question comes from Maks Mishyn from JB Capital. Now your line is open.
Maks Mishyn
Hello, good morning. Thank you very much for the presentation and taking our questions.
Three questions from me, please. The first one is on Motor: what drove such a notable improvement in claims quarter-on-quarter, and do you expect any impact from Madrid forest fires in the third quarter?
The second is on average premiums: they seem to continue slowing down, according to my estimates they increased less than 2% year-on-year in the second quarter. Does inflation worry you, and how can you comfort us that inflation will not hurt profits?
Then the third one is on Home insurance: similar to Motor, what drove the spectacular combined ratio in the quarter? Thank you.
Carlos Rodríguez Ugarte
Thank you very much, Maks. On the first question, well, it's kind of difficult to explain what happened on the second quarter even in the first quarter.
I think we need to look at the numbers on a yearly basis and the evolution of frequency and average cost. I think frequency behavior in the second quarter was very much in line as we expected.
Average cost was a little bit lower than what we expected, probably that is the result. Again, on the claim side or on the entire business, I think we have to take a look on a yearly basis.
We have some seasonality impacts that might happen on the second quarter, on the third quarter. Again, frequency was fine for the quarter, it's been fine for the year, and in terms of average cost, even with the worries on inflation, it's lower than we expected.
On the average premium, it is true that if you do the numbers, we are talking about an average increase in the neighborhood of 2% in the book and on the new business. We are concerned about inflation, and we monitor inflation, not only inflation, but we also monitor all the collateral impacts on the repair side of our business, especially on the repair side of cars.
We monitor that, if we need to adjust more, we will do so. As of today, we have an average premium upside of 2%, and we will monitor if we will need more or less.
At the end, this is a matter of price risk, this is a matter of technical margin, and our technical margin is keeping on improving every quarter-on-quarter, we are very comfortable on the situation right now. Again, if inflation becomes an important issue, we will adjust average premiums.
Then on the Home insurance, well, Home is performing in terms of technical result very well for the last year and a half, or something like that. Even the market as a whole is performing quite well.
It's a matter of having less atmospheric events that we expected, good risk profiling on the book, and the combination of that puts that combined ratio in the neighborhood of 80%. My expectation looking forward is that probably we will have to wait until the climate issues on autumn, and see what happens with atmospheric events and whether we will adjust the combined ratio.
Far, good. Regarding the latest fires in Madrid and in Castellón, well, we are concerned.
I think nowadays we are much more concerned on helping our clients, potential affected people, trying to reach them to see that everything is fine besides covering the risks or not. I think the important thing nowadays is being on the side of clients more than concerning about the impact that it might have on the P&L.
As we have a lot of reinsurance programs that account for these issues. Again, I think today the thing is to be in the side of the clients, very close to the clients to help them.
Thank you very much.
Operator
The next question comes from Carlos Peixoto from CaixaBank. Now your line is open.
[unclear] Your line is open.
Carlos Peixoto
Hello, are you hearing me now?
Carlos Rodríguez Ugarte
Yes, we can hear you, Carlos. How are you?
Carlos Peixoto
Okay. Sorry about that.
I'm fine, thank you. Good morning.
A couple of questions from my side as well. On the combined ratio on the Home business, well, you mentioned that the market is benefiting from lower levels of atmospheric events.
In the medium term, you don't see this level of combined ratio as something sustainable, or do you think it's something that can be upheld into the medium term? Just to have a bit of your sensitivity on that front.
Then also on the payout policy, I was wondering, considering the evolution on the P&L, whether we could see some changes on that front, whether this year you consider paying four interim dividend or four quarterly dividends basically, or not? Just some views on the expected payout policy.
Thank you very much.
Carlos Rodríguez Ugarte
Thank you, Carlos. On the Home insurance, I don't have the crystal ball to see what's going to happen by the end of the year in the combined ratio.
What I always said is that atmospheric events, they have a big, big impact on this business. It's been a very mild year in terms of atmospheric events, because the rains that we had on the beginning of the year, they mostly were covered by reinsurance or Consorcio.
It has been a very good year in terms of that. Again, let's see what happened after summer.
Normally October is not a very good month in terms of atmospheric, although last year was very good, but I see this combined ratio very powerful, and of course we expect to be in that line. I don't know if it's going to be an 80 an 83 or it's going to be closer to 90.
Again, on those grounds, I think it's a very, very good number, a very solid number for the company. In terms of the payout policy, no, you should expect two quarters two payments throughout the year, and one complementary after the year-end.
In terms of the dividend payout, well, it is true that we have a 196.3% solvency ratio, very happy on that, coming from 183 on the first quarter. Again, solvency ratio is also has a lot of seasonality effects with the premium provision and all other adjustments such as renewals and so on.
We have to wait and see. Very happy on 193, and on those grounds, we will see what the board decides in terms of payout.
Operator
The next question comes from Juan Pablo from Santander. Now your line is open.
Hey,
Juan Pablo
hi, good morning. Thank you for taking my questions.
I got two questions. First one is regarding Solvency II ratio performed very well this quarter.
You mentioned that one of the reasons is the revaluation of the portfolio recognized in equity. If you could elaborate a bit on that one.
Also, I see that the diversification benefits performed well in the quarter, if you could also elaborate on that. My second question, sorry if I missed this one, it's regarding digital sales.
If I remember right, in the previous quarter, you mentioned around 9% of the new sales were done through digital channels, 100%. If you could update that for us, that would be helpful.
Thank you.
Carlos Rodríguez Ugarte
Thank you, Juan Pablo. Regarding the first question, well, one of the positive or negative adjustments that you have on own funds when you calculate the solvency ratio is the evolution of the unrealized capital gains or losses of the portfolio.
I think as of March, our portfolio had unrealized losses of €1 million or gains of €1 million, and on this quarter, the unrealized gains were very close to €10 million. When you put solvency points on top of that, that has a lot of impact.
I think the impact of the investment portfolio has been in the neighborhood of four 400 basis points on the solvency ratio. Regarding the second question, what was the second question?
Beatriz Izard
Digital sales.
Carlos Rodríguez Ugarte
Digital sales. I think it's going quite well.
If you take a look at this numbers that we started to post two years ago, it is true that on the first quarter we were in the neighborhood of 9%, and I think we are in the neighborhood of 13%, 14%, 1-4. The evolution is very good.
Again, I repeat, these are sales that they don't have any human interaction. They are completely done by the client, the entire process, and the intention of the company is to keep on doing that and keep on fostering digital sales, not only because of the savings that you might have on the expense ratio, but also because I think it's much better in terms of customer satisfaction and so on.
Perfect.
Juan Pablo
Thank you.
Operator
There are no further questions at this time. I will now hand back to Beatriz Izard, Head of Investor Relations.
Beatriz, now your line is open.
Beatriz Izard
Thank you. We have some questions received through the platform.
The first one is coming from Paco Riquel. Hello, Paco.
Can you explain basically the differences in between the loss ratio in local and IFRS 17?
Carlos Rodríguez Ugarte
I assume that you wanna understand why the combined ratio in one side is one number and the other side. It's kind of difficult because you have a lot of adjustments.
You have the statistical adjustment, which is not exactly the same on IFRS 17 as in local. Then you have the adjustment of the risk margin, which is not exactly the same as of the percentile.
There are different adjustments. If you take a look at backwards, they have always been those difference between the combined ratio in local and in IFRS.
Having said that, the combined ratio in local I think year-to-date is 92.4%, which I think is the best combined ratio you might find here in the insurance sector in Spain, very comfortable on that. It is true that on IFRS is better.
Again, our official numbers are on IFRS 17 and the case is that well, we have a very competitive combined result. Again, on local is 92.4, which I'm very comfortable on that, and the mismatch or the difference are different adjustments that you have to do in the 17 regulation.
Beatriz Izard
The next question comes from BofA, from Nimrat Kaur. The first question is, you mentioned continued pressure on claims cost in the press release, and are you seeing an ongoing increase in claims inflation?
Your second quarter 2026 loss ratio of 69.2%, how much that improvement is supported by better claims frequency versus a continuous, sustainable improvement?
Carlos Rodríguez Ugarte
Inflation is something I think that we follow very much. Indeed we have an internal observatory of inflation where not only look at inflation itself, but also the impact that it has in different raw materials that impact in our business, especially on the repair side of the business.
As of today, the evolution of the average repair cost, or the repair price index, which is something that we follow, is more or less contained. We are concerned, but it's not evolving bad.
We'll see what happened if the Brent price still is on the 90s and things like that, we need to monitor that. Again, I always say the same thing: if the risk premium of the company, which is a matter of frequency times cost, increases, we will need to adjust average premiums, as we did back in 2022 and 2023.
We monitor very much that. Then the split, I don't have the split between frequency and average cost, it's something that probably we can share later with you.
Again, frequency is performing quite in line as we budgeted at the beginning of the year. Some deviation may be on the bodily injury frequency, better on the materials frequency, but in general terms, the performance up to now, it's very much in line as our expectations.
Beatriz Izard
Thank you, Carlos. The second question from Nimrat says, your Home expense ratio is 30.5% in the second quarter of '26, this is the first time it's gone above 30% since the second quarter of '23, could you explain what is driving that and how we should think about it going forward?
Carlos Rodríguez Ugarte
Going forward, in the medium/long term, you should expect the expense ratio of the Home insurance going down, because at the end it's embracing in the total expense ratio of the company, and our objective has always been becoming more efficient and more efficient. If you take a look at the company as a whole, the expense ratio keeps on improving every quarter.
What has happened in this quarter? The Home insurance is still a very thin business.
Whenever you put a little bit more pressure on marketing, that expense ratio goes up, and I think we put a little bit more pressure on marketing trying to help the upper lines of the company. Again, the strategy of the company is improving that expense ratio, and it is true that having a combined ratio below 90, you can afford to spend a little bit more on marketing.
Beatriz Izard
Thank you. The third question is, could you please explain why the real estate rental income continuation has been pushed out to June 2027 from November 2026?
Carlos Rodríguez Ugarte
It's not something that you should take by something that is gonna happen. Again, we have a big building in prime Madrid, which we are renewing, entire business, we don't have any rentals nowadays.
We are talking about a 10,000-square-meter building, which provides quite a bit of real estate income. We intend to finish the works by the end of the year, and we will find a tenant.
That given the fact that it's in prime Madrid and there is very few competitors in that, it would be not very difficult to find a tenant, but then you have to negotiate with them, when they start they need to do their implementation in the building and so on. We are kind of conservatives in getting numbers on the first half of 2027.
Again, you shouldn't take that by granted because it's basically trying to be conservative as we always are. The good thing is that the asset that we have is first quality asset, the rentals on that will be very high, because again we are talking in the center of Madrid, and whether it will be in the first half of '27 or in the second half is not very relevant.
Beatriz Izard
Thank you. Now the last question comes from Marisa Mazo from GVC, and she's asking about the investment in technology: what's the total investment, how much are compulsory, and how much is about enhancing capabilities?
What are the estimated future savings as
Carlos Rodríguez Ugarte
well? On the future savings, I think it's too soon to tell you.
I don't think we do things based on saving money or saving expenses. I think that is not the real strategy.
The real strategy is putting technology towards get a much better customer experience, get a much better customer knowledge so we can offer different products to our clients at the right moment, but not because of the expense savings. We are a very efficient company, and we will always be with investment in technology or not.
The company is really embracing in improving productivity, and to do so, we have to invest money in probably in tools in order to know much better our clients, CRMs, things like that. We are going to do on looking forward for the next three years, but in terms of numbers, I think it's kind of difficult to share with you numbers nowadays.
Beatriz Izard
Thank you, Carlos, and thank you all for joining. The Investor Relations team remains available for any further information.
Carlos Rodríguez Ugarte
Thank you very much, and have a safe summer.
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