Bermuda domiciled financial services holding company White Mountains Insurance Group has posted comprehensive income of $413 million for 2019.
Improvement in the performance of White Mountains’ investment portfolio helped return the company to profitability, after it recorded a loss of $146 million in 2018.
Looking at the fourth quarter alone, the company reported comprehensive income of $65 million, versus a loss of $141 million for the same period in 2018.
The total return on invested assets was 3.9% in Q4 2019 compared to -4.4% in the last quarter of 2018.
The total return on invested assets for the full year was 20.4%, which included $115 million of unrealized investment gains from MediaAlpha’s sale of a minority stake to Insignia Capital Group in February.
Excluding this transaction, the total return on invested assets was 15.5% for the year, compared to -1.7% for 2018.
“We had a solid 4th quarter to cap off a satisfying year,” said White Mountains CEO Manning Rountree. “Our investment portfolio was up 4% in the quarter, a strong result that included a $30 million increase in the fair value of our investment in MediaAlpha, which continues to produce outstanding results.”
“In the quarter, BAM produced $23 million of premiums and member surplus contributions on good volume but lower pricing. In December and January, BAM made cash payments of surplus note principal and interest totaling $97 million.”
“Quarter over quarter, NSM produced solid top line growth and a flat bottom line result, reflecting continuing investment in the business,” Rountree continued.
“In the quarter, Kudu continued to grow revenues and profits and closed two new investments, marking the full deployment of our initial $250 million commitment. In December, Kudu raised another $225 million of capital, comprised of a new $125 million committed bank facility and an incremental $100 million equity capital commitment from White Mountains. We ended the year with $1.0 billion of undeployed capital.”
