North America drives down profits at PartnerRe
Bermuda-based PartnerRe posted a fall in profits and growth for the first quarter of 2015 as its North America business dragged down results.
Its profits fell to $231.7 million for the first quarter of 2015, compared with $295.7 million in the first quarter of 2014, while its gross written premiums fell to $1.7 billion in the quarter, compared with $1.9 billion in the same period of the prior year.
PartnerRe’s net premiums written (NWP) fell 5 percent to $1.7 billion, although on a constant foreign, NPW increased 1 percent.
This was mainly due to PartnerRe’s life and health segment, where NWP increased 11 percent driven, or 19 percent on a constant foreign exchange basis, by the reinsurer’s accident and health line of business and new business in the mortality and longevity lines of business.
However, the increases were almost entirely offset by an 11 percent decrease in NWP in the North America non-life segment. On a constant foreign exchange basis NWP decreased 10 percent.
Within the segment, cancellations, non-renewals and participation decreases across various lines of business and lower premiums bound in the agriculture line contributed to the fall. The decreases were partially offset by new business written in prior periods and at the January 1, 2015 renewal in the property and casualty lines of business.
Overall the non-life segment’s NPW fell 8 percent, or 3 percent on a constant foreign exchange basis, in the first quarter of 2015. Decreases in the North America segment were partially offset by modest increases, on a constant foreign exchange basis, in the catastrophe and global segments.
The non-life segment’s combined ratio improved to 82.8 percent in the first quarter of 2015, compared with 83.9 percent in the first quarter of 2014.
David Zwiener, PartnerRe interim chief executive officer, said: “We had a solid start to 2015. Despite continued pressure across all reinsurance lines, our operating performance in the first quarter was characterised by very good underlying technical results and included an absence of major catastrophes and continued favourable reserve development, resulting in a 9.8 percent operating ROE.
“This, combined with strong results in our investment portfolio, generated tangible book value per share growth of 3.2 percent. These results clearly demonstrate our excellent execution capabilities and the strength of the PartnerRe franchise."
