Brightside Group

Insurance broking and financial services concern Brightside Group says 2009 profits should ‘slightly exceed market expectations’.

The Bristol-based company, UK market leader in commercial van insurance and ambitious to build its life assurance side, says it brokered more than 197,000 policies overall last year, an increase of 30%. According to AIM-quoted Brightside, which increased first-half pre-tax profits 28% to £3.2m on revenues up 39% to £21.7m, life assurance continues to achieve ‘significant growth’ and is chalking up an annualised run-rate of more than 10,000 policy sales, while its medical reporting business saw a 130% increase in instructions to 27,500.

In December, Brightside raised £20m at 22p to increase the capacity of its premium finance operation and fund the continued expansion of life assurance and medical reporting. City analysts see the company showing a £500,000 pre-tax profits increase to £6.2m for 2009, with £8.1m on the cards for this year.

Highlighted by Growth Company Investor at 21.5p in September, the shares, which have traded between 32p and 127p over the past 12 months, have now reached 27p. There remains scope for further improvement over the medium term.