29 October 2020News

AXIS Capital sinks to a $73m loss for Q3

AXIS Capital reported a net loss for the third quarter of 2020 but insisted the results still contained encouraging signs, blaming the loss on severe natural catastrophe activity in a quarter that has seen a record-breaking number of hurricanes in the Atlantic.

AXIS made a net loss of $73 million in Q3 2020, having made a $28 million profit in the same period of 2019.

Gross written premiums decreased by $75 million to $1.3 billion. AXIS said the reversal was due to a decrease of $116 million in the reinsurance segment, and was partially offset by an increase of $41 million in the insurance segment.

The re/insurer’s combined ratio widened to 114.5 percent, from 109.4 percent in Q3 2019.

Albert Benchimol, president and chief executive officer of AXIS Capital, highlighted the “encouraging progress” the re/insurer has made in a “quarter in which the world and our industry were impacted by exceptional levels of cat loss activity.”

Benchimol added: "The losses that we experienced during the quarter were consistent with our reduced catastrophe exposure, reflecting the changes that we’ve made in recent years to reposition our portfolio. We continue to see positive trends in our underlying performance.”