Validus sees Q1 profits tumble

Validus Holdings has reported that its first quarter 2017 net income came to $94.6 million, down 43.3 percent on the $166.8 million it made in the same quarter of the previous year.

Net operating income for the period was $76.8 million, again down substantially on the $121.5 million the company reported for the first three months of 2016.

However, gross written premiums for the first quarter of 2017 came to $1.191 billion, a 1.5 percent increase on the $1.173 billion Validus reported in the same period of 2016. The company said that the increase was primarily driven by an increase in its Western World segment and was offset by decreases in its Validus Re and Talbot segments.

Looking more closely at the results, Validus saw a fall in income from all four of its major segments. Underwriting income for Validus Re fell from $98.3 million in the first quarter of 2016 to $71.8 million in the same period of 2017.

Underwriting income at Talbot fell from $20.3 million in the first three months of 2016 to $4.9 million over the first quarter of 2017.

Western World reported a loss of $4.7 million in the first quarter of 2016, which deepened to a loss of $9.1 million in the same quarter of 2017.

And Validus’ share of AlphaCat income went from $8.8 million in the first three months of 2016 to $6.1 million in the same period of 2017.

At the same time Validus said that there had been no notable loss events for it over the three months ended March 31, 2017.

“This was another good quarter for the Validus Group,” said Validus' chairman and CEO Ed Noonan. “We had $94.6 million in net income, and an annualised return on average equity of 10.2 percent in the quarter. Our combined ratio of 83.2 percent reflects our continued commitment to underwriting profits, and most importantly we grew our book value per diluted common share (including dividends) by 2.9 percent during the quarter.”