Insurance giant Towergate suffered losses of £58 million in the first six months of the year as it continues to be affected by a dramatic financial restructure.

Half-year results for the Maidstone-based business revealed it suffered a 10% decline in income to £184 million, compared to the same period a year ago.

The firm is still struggling to keep a lid on costs, with its expense ratio – the amount of its total assets used to cover expenses – up 11 points to £79%.

The insurer suffered a 72% decline in its operating cashflow – the amount of cash generated by a company’s normal business – down to just £12 million.

It said this was driven largely by the reduction in operating earnings, down 40% to £39 million.

“The performance of the business is not where we aspire it to be, but there are encouraging signs only three months after the completion of our financial restructuring...” - Scott Egan, Towergate

Last month, Kent Business revealed the broker made a loss of more than £720 million last year as it underwent a drastic restructure of its £1 billion debts.

The underwriter, which employs 4,400 people across 100 UK offices, including others in Sevenoaks and Whitstable, lost £553 million on the value of businesses it acquired after years of growth.

The debt-laden company was put up for sale last November and announced a restructure in February, which reduced its debt from more than 10 times its earnings to nearer 4.6 times.

Its latest results showed that since then, there have been some signs of recovery.

Long-term strategic deals with LV and Allianz were signed in May and June respectively and several insurer deals delayed from 2014 have now been completed.

Interim chief executive Scott Egan said: “The context for our performance is well known, but what is important is that in the second quarter of the year, we began to see the first signs of improvement as the rate of year-on-year decline in our organic income improved.

“Our expense ratio remains high at 79% but this should reduce as the organic income improvement gathers momentum and the business starts to grow back into its cost base.

“We will manage our expenses appropriately, but we do not want to take short-term actions that could impact on the recovery of our income.

“The performance of the business is not where we aspire it to be, but there are encouraging signs only three months after the completion of our financial restructuring.”