HELSINKI (Reuters) – Finnish insurer Sampo on Wednesday reported a stronger-than-expected rise in third-quarter pretax profit, aided by a strong performance from its insurance subsidiary If and gains from selling a stake in Nordea bank.

“Our largest business If P&C reported a record-breaking third-quarter combined ratio of 80.2 percent,” Chief Executive Torbjorn Magnusson said in a statement, referring to a key industry measure.

Pretax profit for July and September rose by 30% to 632million euros ($732million) from 485million last year. This is a rise of 30%, surpassing the expectation of analysts polled by Refinitiv that it would be 594.2 million.

In the third quarter, the group combined ratio dropped 2.3 points to 80.8%. That beat analysts’ consensus estimate at 81.5% according to a poll. An insurer that has a ratio lower than 100 indicates it earns less in premiums and pays more claims.

Sampo’s September sale of shares in Finland’s Nordea bank netted it 144 millions euros. Sampo said that the bank’s ownership will be significantly reduced as the company focuses more on its insurance business.

Sampo reduced Nordea’s holding to 6.1% but is still the biggest owner.

Sampo started a program to purchase back shares worth 750 millions euros in October. It has since announced that it will be launching another programme next year.

In addition, the insurer stated that its board would recommend an extraordinary dividend of no less than 2 euros per share.

($1 = 0.8632 euros)