Chubb profits skyrocket in Q1 as Greenberg predicts enduring hard market

Chubb saw its first quarter profits skyrocket in 2021, with the carrier capitalising on favourable market conditions and predicting more to come going forward.

Chubb reported net profit of $2.3 billion for Q1 2021, turning around the more modest $252 million profit generated in the same period the previous year.

It reported net written premiums of $8.04 billion in its property and casualty (P&C) segment, up 9.7 percent on the $7.33 billion reported in Q1 2020. Its combined ratio, meanwhile, increased slightly to 91.8 percent, from 89.1 percent the previous year.

Its pre-tax P&C catastrophe losses, net of reinsurance and including reinstatement premiums, were $700 million, compared with $237 million in Q1 2020.

Evan Greenberg, Chubb’s chairman and chief executive officer, described it as a “very good quarter with excellent commercial premium revenue growth globally, double-digit renewal rate change in our commercial P&C businesses, and further expansion of our underwriting margins.”

These market conditions look set to endure, he added, as the market finally normalises after years of underpricing.

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