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* Recent Cumbria floods not to affect business – CEO

* In talks with six US utilities
* Confident of meeting FY mkt view for pretax profit

* H1 adj profit from core ops 18.9 mln stg vs 16.5 mln *
Shares up 8.6 pct
(Adds details, analyst comment; updates share movement)

By Tresa Sherin Morera

BANGALORE, Nov 24 (Reuters) – British home-insurance group
HomeServe Plc (HSV.L) posted a higher first-half profit from
core operations, aided by growth in customer and policy
numbers, and said it would not be affected by the recent floods
in north west England.

HomeServe, which provides cover for a range of emergencies
such as broken boilers and overflowing washing machines, also
said it was confident of meeting market estimates for a
full-year pretax profit of 98.0 million pounds ($162 million).

“The flooding in the UK won’t have an effect on our
business,” Chief Executive Richard Harpin told Reuters.

HomeServe shares were up 8.6 percent at 1,651 pence at 1303
GMT on Tuesday on the London Stock Exchange.

The Association of British Insurers had said on Monday the
UK insurance industry faced a hit of up to 100 million pounds
from last week’s floods in northern England. [ID:nGEE5AM0XU]

“We used to carry out fire and flood restoration, which was
a part of the emergency services business that we recently sold
to enable us to focus on our high-margin, recurring-income
membership business,” Harpin said.

HomeServe, which raised its interim dividend by 9.5
percent, said it continued to see good levels of new policy
sales and high levels of renewals in the second half.

It expects margins to remain on the “similar sort of levels
as the first half,” the CEO said.

Seymour Pierce said the group was heavily geared towards
the second half and reiterated its “outperform” rating on the
stock.

For the six months ended Sept. 30, adjusted pretax profit
from core operations rose to 18.9 million pounds from 16.5
million pounds last year. Revenue grew 25 percent to 135.0
million pounds.

Including a loss of 24.6 million pounds from the sale of
its Emergency Services business, HomeServe slipped to a net
loss of 12.3 million pounds, compared with a profit of 10.1
million pounds last year.

The company declared an interim dividend of 11.5 pence, up
from last year’s 10.5 pence.  Continued…