11 November 2019News

PartnerRe Q3 profitability up year on year across the business

PartnerRe generated a net profit of $216 million in Q3 2019.

The result was a significant turnaround on the same period in 2018, when the resinsurer made a net loss of $106 million.

The non-life business reported an underwriting profit of $49 million for Q3 and a combined ratio of 96.4 percent, including $93 million pre-tax losses from Hurricane Dorian and Typhoon Faxai. In the same period of 2108 it made a loss of $87 million with a combined ratio of 107.8 percent.

In the P&C business it reported a combined ratio of 99.4 percent for Q3, down from 114.7 percent in Q3 2018. In specialty it saw the combined ratio fall year on year to 91.7 percent, from 97.4 percent.

In the life and health business PartnerRe reported allocated underwriting profit of $31 million for Q3, compared to $18 million the previous year.

Gross premiums written were up to $1.7 billion for the quarter, up from $1.5 billion in the same quarter last year. In the non-life net segment specifically premiums written increased 17 percent to $1.26 billion, while in the life and health business they increased 19 percent to $352 million

At the group level the performance was driven partly by the investment portfolio, where it made a $41 million return on its fixed maturities and short-term investments, and $39 million net foreign exchange gains. In Q3 2018 it saw net realised and unrealised investment losses on fixed maturities and short-term investments of $73 million, and $17 million net foreign exchange losses.

Emmanuel Clarke, president and CEO of PartnerRe, said: “We are very focused on delivering further underwriting margin improvement in 2020, helped by a non-life pricing environment we expect to continue to firm. With our capital and book value up 9.9 percent and 14.2 percent respectively for the year, we are well positioned to capitalise on selective growth opportunities with improved margins and attractive returns, while reducing our exposure to underperforming segments.”