More than 10,000 staff at insurance giant Admiral have been handed free shares worth £1,800 each after the coronavirus lockdown saw a slump in car crash claims.
The new payout means the average Admiral worker has had £10,800 worth of free shares over the past three years.
Its latest worker windfall came as Admiral bucked the gloom gripping the business world by revealing profits rose 31% to £286million in the six months to the end of June.
The increase came as the coronavirus lockdown led to a “significant” drop in motor insurance claims as people stayed at home and drove less.
Admiral, unlike many of its rivals, responded by handing money back to customers through a £110million Stay at Home refund worth £25 per vehicle.
The cost of that was the main reason group turnover dipped 4% to just under £1.7billion in the first half of the year.
Customer number increased 6% to 7.17million.
Admiral’s share price rose more than 4% yesterday as it declared an interim dividend of 91.2p per share, worth £263million.
Boss David Stevens said: “A year ago I described our results as ‘frankly a bit dull’.
“With the benefit of hindsight there’s a lot to be said for ‘dull’ if the alternative is a global pandemic.”
Figures from hello-safe.co.uk show while lockdown was force, car accidents fell 69.4% while repairs dropped even more at 80.2%.
The firm estimated insurance providers saved an astonishing £1.3billion as a result.
Admiral was the only major car insurer to hand cash back to customers over the period, although LV set up a £30million fund for any of its customers experiencing difficulties financially, whether they drove less or not.
