Smith praises transformation at Ageas

As part of the group results for the first nine months of 2011 Ageas Insurance reported a near trebling in pre tax profit to £41.8m as it moved through the 100% combined operating ratio to 99.8%.

Mr Smith told Insurance Age: "We are really pleased with the nine months. We did a lot of good things last year on product and pricing and linked to concluding the Tesco deal.

"This year is important for us in terms of delivery. What we can see is a lot of evidence of transformation and step change in