“Insurance sales dropped to $619 million in the quarter from $799 million, hit by tax and product changes in Japan and price increases to protect margins and lower sales of group benefits to large clients in Canada” chief executive Donald Guloien
While SGI CANADA experienced normal summer storm activity, SGI said the Saskatchewan Auto Fund felt the impact of high claim costs in the fourth quarter of 2012 due to poor winter driving conditions
The Lloyd’s market has posted a strong result, despite incurring $16 billion of total net claims in 2012, including Superstorm Sandy, one of the costliest natural catastrophes in history,” said Lloyd’s CEO Richard Ward
Kingsway Financial Services Inc. reported a net loss of $13.0 million, or a loss of $0.99 per diluted share, for the fourth quarter of 2012 and a net loss of $53.3 million, or a loss of $4.05 per diluted share, for the full year.
“Looking forward, our focus will be on improving the customer experience, as we feel this will be an important differentiator in an increasingly competitive marketplace”
“The Canadian insurance business, unlike many other businesses in the Group is mostly intermediated; however we continue to address increasing customer demand for choice, simplicity and self-service by working with our brokers to help them compete with other channels”
Adjusting for prior year reserve releases and slightly lower than expected natural catastrophe losses, the underlying combined ratio for the year was 91.1%.
Personal lines premiums, including Johnson Inc., were up 7 percent to $1,723 million, driven by strong rating action across all provinces
Economical’s total mutual policyholders’ equity increased by $164.1 million (12.6 percent) in 2012 to $1,464.2 million as of December 31, 2012
For the year, the insurer recorded net income of $257.7 million, compared to $150.3 million in 2011, resulting in earnings per common share of $11.84 compared to $6.59 in 2011
Net operating income for the year was $675 million, up $215 million from the previous year
Predicted Profitable 2012 for Reinsurers: A.M. Best
Looking forward, DGIG President and Chief Operating Officer Paquette says she is concerned by two issues: profitability in the Ontario auto insurance market and the impact of the prolonged period of low interest rates
Economical’s total mutual policyholders’ equity has increased 9.5% in the first nine months of 2012 to stand at $1,423.3 million as of September 30
Specific to Insurance Underwriting, during the third quarter the company began taking actions to significantly reduce the amount of commercial lines business written at Kingsway Amigo Insurance Company and to update Amigo’s personal lines product offering
In its property and casualty insurance segment, Desjardins reported total income for of $581 million for the third quarter of 2012, an increase of $10 million or 1.8% compared to the same period of 2011
“While not agreed, any such sale would come at a substantial discount to IFRS book value, but would generate significant economic capital surplus,” said Aviva Chairman McFarlane
At the same time, the company reports its net income fell to $96 million in Q3 2012 compared to $101 in the same period last year, due mostly to lower investment gains
“Our underwriting results continued to improve on increased premiums and we produced a small investment loss due to our unrealized investment losses related to our defensive hedging strategy,” said Prem Watsa
