Heritage is expecting to see $45m in catastrophe losses, along with $18.8m of other weather losses in Q1 2022.
This is in comparison with to $15.4m and $16.1m, respectively, for the same period in 2021. Total net current accident quarter weather losses were approximately $63.8m in the first quarter of 2022, compared to $31.4m in the same period the year prior. The firm said that these figures are based on information available to management and remain subject to the completing of auditing.
These latest figures follow the firm reporting a net loss of $49.2m for the fourth quarter of 2021, and a loss of $74.7m for the full year.
Back then, Heritage attributed the quarterly downturn to a $60.5m non-cash goodwill impairment charge and a large tax benefit in the prior year quarter, partly offset by higher underwriting income associated with rate increases, re-underwriting efforts and normalized weather.
In contrast, the company’s Q4 combined ratio improved notably from 108.7% in 2020 to 93.2% last year, with the full year combined ratio also improving from 107.1% to 104.6%.
This was helped by a 8.5 percentage point reduction in the loss ratio during Q4, which came to 61.9%, as well as a 7.0 point decrease in the expense ratio, which came to 31.3%.
