SYDNEY (Reuters) - Australia's biggest insurer QBE Insurance Group <QBE.AX> said on Thursday its first-half net profit jumped 30 percent due to higher premiums in the United States and Australia, but its overall payout ratio worsened due to a claims blowout in its emerging markets unit.
QBE added that the chief executive officer its of emerging markets unit would step down following a "major disappointment" in that unit's performance.
Net profit came in at A$345 million ($273.4 million) for the six months to June 30, compared with A$265 million a year ago and higher than a mean forecast of A$319 million according to two analysts polled by Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.
But the company's combined operating ratio, a percentage of claims payouts against premium income, rose to 95.3 percent from 94.5 percent. That was within the range the company foreshadowed when it warned about the effects of higher underwriting losses in its emerging markets division in June.
"The performance of emerging markets was a major disappointment," the company said in a market filing.
The unit's result "reflects a material increase in the current accident year claims ratio across numerous portfolios and regions, in both Asia Pacific and Latin America, coupled with adverse prior accident year claims development, primarily in Hong Kong workers' compensation".
QBE said its emerging markets CEO David Fried will step down as the company splits its emerging markets unit into two divisions, Asia Pacific and Latin America.
The company announced an interim dividend of 22 Australian cents per share, higher than the 21-cent interim dividend it paid a year ago.
($1 = 1.2618 Australian dollars)
(Reporting by Byron Kaye and Tom Westbrook, editing by G Crosse)
