2 August 2016News

Endurance results boosted by Montpelier acquisition

Endurance, domiciled in Bermuda, has encountered a significant increase in nearly all lines of business in the second quarter of 2016, boosted by its acquisition of Montpelier Re and also its underwriting portfolio expansion. Its profits remained stable.

Endurance reported its gross written premiums (GWP) of $1.1 billion during the second quarter of this year, ending June 30, with an increase of 32 percent compared to the same period in 2015.

GWP for the company’s insurance sector for the second quarter was $593.7 million, a 26.6 percent increase from last year.

The non-agriculture lines of business, including casualty and other specialty, professional lines and property, marine/energy and aviation lines of business, increased by 47.6 percent since last year. Endurance credits the expansion of its underwriting by product and geography as well as the Lloyd’s syndicate acquired from Montpelier in 2015.

The GWP of Endurance’s reinsurance segment for this period was $543.2 million, a 38.5 percent increase from the same period in 2015.

Endurance’s net income has also increased to $76.6 million for the second quarter, a 0.8 increase from $76 million for the previous year.

The combined ratio has worsened slightly in the period reaching 92.6 percent compared with 85.5 percent for the same period a year before. This was mainly due to a number of catastrophe losses including: the Fort McMurray wildfires in Canada, the convective storms in Texas and Europe and the Kumamoto earthquake in Japan.

“Endurance’s second quarter results demonstrated strong underlying profitability as reflected by our combined ratio of 92.6 percent,” said John Charman, chairman and chief executive officer.

“Our embedded risk management practices aligned with our comprehensive reinsurance and retrocessional programmes enabled us to achieve underwriting profitability in both business segments despite a number of severe global catastrophes and large risk losses across the industry.

“Strategically, the second quarter reflected our continued focused and diversified core underwriting expansion as evidenced by the 32 percent growth in our GWP. In addition to our targeted growth across our global businesses, our successful renewal of the Montpelier portfolio also helped drive our expansion.

“The quick, effective and successful integration of Montpelier has enabled us to exceed our expense and capital synergy objectives; those important benefits are now clearly visible in our financial results.

“Endurance is well equipped and very well positioned to thrive in the current market, which is showing increasing signs of moderation."