Watford Holdings reports a net profit of $60m

Watford Holdings saw its profits increase year on year on both a full year and a fourth quarter basis in 2020 in results its chief executive said demonstrated the durability of its business model.

Watford reported a full year net profit of $60.5 million for 2020, compared to net profit of $44.7 million for 2019.

For the fourth quarter of 2020 it reported net profit of $61.4 million, compared to a net loss of $16.9 million for the same period in 2019.

Gross written premiums for 2020 were $728.5 million, slightly down on the $754.9 million written in 2019. For Q4 it reported gross written premiums of $138.2 million, down from $156.3 million in the same period of 2019.

Watford’s combined ratio for 2020 was 106.1 percent, down from 109.7 percent in 2019. For Q4 2020 the combined ratio came in at 106.3 percent, having been 128.3 percent in Q4 2019.

Jon Levy, chief executive officer of Watford, said the results “continue to demonstrate the durability in our business model,” noting that results had been driven by strong investment income, which totaled $84.4 million for Q4 2020.

He added: “Our ultimate objective is to grow book value per share over time, and despite a tumultuous and challenging environment for underwriting and investments, we have grown our book value per diluted common share by 8.3 percent in the year.”