The Direct Line Group is a listed UK insurance company, mad famous by the red telephone and changing the way UK consumers bought insurance.
http://www.directlinegroup.com/
Insurance is a simple business, collect in premiums to take on risk, invest those premiums and if all things being equal, pay-outs on claims are less than the premiums received.
Direct Line invests the premium income, and it is interesting to see what investments it holds:-
Corporate Bonds £4,048.6 Million
Derivatives £143.1 Million
Local government debt £103.8 Million
Securitised debt £314.5 Million
Sovereign debt £503.8 Million
Infrastructure debt £301.0 Million
Cash and cash equivalents £1,105.2 Million
Investment property £340.1 Million
Total £6,860.1 Million
That is £6.8601 Billion
Based on the premium income, they have “put the money to work” to buy investments. that in itself generated Investment income of £41.5 Million, and those investments also increased in value by £152.4 million.
Insurance premiums create investment opportunities.