Chubb Ltd. reported stronger-than-expected growth in operating earnings and premiums for the third quarter.
The company was formed early this year when ACE Ltd. closed on its nearly $30 billion acquisition of Chubb Corp. and kept the Chubb name.
The property and casualty insurer said pretax catastrophe losses reached $144 million in the latest quarter, compared with $72 million a year earlier.
Chubb and other property-and-casualty insurers largely were spared of major catastrophe damage during the third quarter, when Hurricane Hermine landed in Florida but quickly weakened. The storm left extensive power outages over the Labor Day weekend on the East Coast but relatively modest claims volume.
However, damage from Hurricane Matthew, a major storm that threatened to hit Florida in early October but stayed offshore to then make landfall in South Carolina, will show up in fourth-quarter results across the sector.
Chubb posted an operating profit of $1.36 billion, or $2.88 a share, up from $897 million, or $2.74 a share, a year earlier.
Operating earnings are a widely watched benchmark for the insurance industry because they exclude realized capital gains and losses from companies’ investment portfolios, among other items that aren’t considered recurring on a quarterly basis.
Net premiums written soared 61% to $7.57 billion. The growth in net premiums written was 4% when considered as if Chubb and Ace also were combined in the year-earlier period.
Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected per-share operating profit of $2.58 and net premiums written of $7.24 billion.
Source: Market Watch