French reinsurer SCOR has reported Group net income of €147 million for the third quarter of 2023 and an improved P&C combined ratio of 90.2%, despite natural catastrophe losses coming in above budget and large man-made claims.
In its results, SCOR states that while the attritional loss ratio is satisfactory for the quarter, the level of man-made claims is too high, and therefore SCOR continues efforts to improve the core performance of its P&C book.
All in all, SCOR has reported a Q3 2023 cat ratio of 13.3%, including 4 points related to claims on the Hawaii wildfires.
For 9M 2023, the P&C combined ratio hit 88%, and SCOR expects it to come down to around 87% for full-year 2023.
P&C new business CSM amounted to €169 million in Q3 2023, reflecting year-on-year growth of 6.4%. P&C new business CSM for the nine month period rose 6.6% year-on-year to more than €1 billion.
Within the L&H reinsurance business, which produced a consistent insurance service result of €113 million in the third quarter, new business CSM reached €89 million. For 9M 2023, new business CRM totalled €376 million.
Group-wide, insurance revenue totalled €4.235 billion in Q3 2023, a rise of 10.2% from the prior year period.
In investments, the insurer and reinsurer benefits from high reinvestment rates and reports a noticeable increase in the regular income yield, which hit 3.4% in Q3 2023 compared with 3.1% in Q2 2023.
Over the first nine months of 2023, and assuming a constant valuation of the option on own shares, SCOR reports a strong performance with net income of €602 million, implying an annualized return on equity of 18.8%, growing its economic value by 7.1%.
Thierry Léger, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of SCOR, commented: “The results over nine months confirm SCOR’s focus on delivering its targets. On the P&C side, we are below our Cat budget over the first nine months of 2023, but continued attention is required on the attritional loss ratio. Our objective as we prepare the 1.1 renewals is to continue to take advantage of the hard market with new business generation at very attractive margins.
“In L&H and Investments, we deliver stable and positive results. With a EUR 602 million9 nine-month result, I see us well placed to deliver on our Forward 2026 plan.”
