Bermudian reinsurer Everest Re Group has reported a significant increase in net income to $342.9 million for the second-quarter of 2019, driven by a solid underwriting and investment performance.
For the second-quarter of 2019, Everest Re’s net income increased by a huge 391% from the $69.9 million recorded in the second-quarter of 2018, while after-tax operating income reached an impressive $320.9 million, compared with $40.4 million a year earlier.
Net income and after-tax operating income also increased for the first-half of the year, totalling $691.8 million and $603.2 million respectively in H1 2019, compared with $280.2 million and $260.1 million in H1 2018, respectively.
For Q2, the reinsurer’s combined ratio strengthened significantly from 105.1% to 89.2%, which was helped by the fact the firm recorded no current year catastrophe losses in the quarter. $30 million of adverse development recorded in Q2 related to prior year cat events, and was mostly offset by $21 million of favourable prior year attritional losses.
At $179 million, net investment income in the second-quarter increased by 27% when compared with the same period in 2018.
Everest Re’s President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Dominic Addesso, commented: “Everest delivered outstanding results for the quarter, with a 16.1% annualized net income return on equity, driven by both solid underwriting and investment performance.
“With nearly $9 billion in common equity and strong franchises in both reinsurance and insurance, our ability to adjust the mix of business to optimize our portfolio was again evident this quarter, as Everest added top line in insurance and casualty reinsurance along with a strong property cat renewal to take advantage of the improved market conditions.”
Gross premiums written (GPW) reached $2.2 billion in Q2 2019, which is growth of 5.5% year-on-year and which was driven by direct insurance premium growth of 17% to $757.1 million, while worldwide reinsurance premiums remain largely flat at $1.4 billion.
