Specialist commercial insurance and reinsurer International General Insurance Holdings Ltd. (IGI) improved its profit to $9.5 million for the third quarter of 2020, compared with $4.3 million for the same period last year.
For the first nine months of the year, profit was also up slightly to $20.7 million, from $19.2 million in 2019.
Performance was helped by underwriting profit of $1.5 million within IGI’s reinsurance segment, compared to a loss of $0.3 million in Q3 2019, due to a lower level of claims and claims adjustment expenses.
For the nine-month period, the segment’s net underwriting result improved to $6.9 million, versus 2.0 million previously.
Net written premiums for reinsurance business improved from $4.2 million to $5.1 million for the Q3 period, and from $15.1 million to $16.5 million for the 9M period.
Underwriting results more broadly saw IGI grow its gross written premiums by 36.9% to $101.2 million in Q3, and by 29.8% to $337.7 million over the first nine months of the year.
The company attributed the increase to new business generated across virtually all lines, as well as improved renewal pricing.
“With the continued uncertainty in global financial markets caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and the frequency worldwide of catastrophe events continuing unabated, it is a testament to IGI’s diversified business profile, risk management, targeted business focus and broad geographic footprint that the Company has not been severely affected either financially or operationally in 2020,” said IGI Chairman and CEO Wasef Jabsheh.
“Our focus on successfully executing our strategy, the provision of excellent service to our clients and partners, and our inherent financial strength gives us confidence that we will maintain our track record of maximizing value for shareholders over the long-term.”
Jabsheh continued: “The pricing environment remains robust – with rates across our book of business up over 21% for the year-to-date – and we continue to thoughtfully, carefully, and profitably grow our book of business, as demonstrated by the 29.8% increase in gross written premiums so far this year.”
“We remain cautious in managing our net exposures to minimize our overall risk profile, and again, this is demonstrated in our combined ratio of 93.7% for the third quarter and 86.5% for the year-to-date. I congratulate all our people across our various offices for the excellent results achieved in what, particularly operationally, has been a very demanding year for IGI.”
