Everest Re profits fall sharply for both full year and Q4 2020

Everest Re Group saw profit decline sharply in both the full year 2020 and the fourth quarter of 2020, but pointed to increased gross written premiums and a healthy balance sheet as evidence that the business remains in great shape.

Everest Re reported net profit of $514 million for 2020, down from $1.0 billion in 2019. For Q4 2020 it reported net profit of $63.6 million, down from $217.6 million in the same period of the previous year.

Gross written premiums for 2020 were $10.48 billion, up from $9.13 billion in 2019. For Q4 it also grew its gross written premiums, to $2.76 billion in 2020, up from $2.44 billion in Q4 2019.

Its combined ratio increased to 102.9 percent for 2020, from 95.5 percent the previous year. In Q4 2020 its combined ratio was 109.1 percent, up from 101.5 percent in Q4 2019.

Juan Andrade, Everest Re group president and chief executive officer, highlighted the group’s strong capital position, which has been bolstered by an offering of $1 billion of senior notes, insisting the business enters 2021 with “great momentum”.

He said: “We are relentlessly executing our strategies from a position of strength in this robust market, as evidenced by 2020 growth in gross written premiums of 15 percent.”