Berkley delivers consistent fourth-quarter earnings
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W.R. Berkley Corp.’s net income for the fourth quarter of 2015 dropped less than 1% from that of the corresponding period a year earlier to $109.7 million, the Greenwich, Connecticut-based insurer reported.
Net written premiums rose 3.0% over those of the same period a year earlier to $1.5 billion, while investment income improved 11.7% to $127.6 million, the company said Tuesday in its earning statement. The combined ratio improved to 93.1% from 93.3%.
For 2015 as a whole, Berkley’s net income fell 22.4% to $503.7 million, reflecting in large part investment income performance over the year as well as a drop of more than 50% in net realized capital gains on investment sale. Investment income for 2015 dropped 14.7% to $512.6 million. Net written premiums rose 3.2% to $6.19 billion for the year while the combined ratio improved to 93.7% from 93.8%.
During an earnings call on Tuesday, Berkley President and CEO W. Robert Berkley Jr. called the fourth quarter of 2015 “a solid quarter.”
“By and large, market conditions were consistent with what we’ve seen over the past several quarters,” Mr. Berkley said. He said that the reinsurance sector remained “fiercely competitive, although the pace of erosion” seems to be slowing down in the domestic market. He added that there also appears to be a slowing down of new entrants into the reinsurance sector.
“We view this as a largely in-line quarter,” Mark Dwelle, an insurance analyst at RBC Capital Markets Inc. in Richmond, Virginia, said in a research note. “Investment results exceeded our reduced expectations, and the tax rate was better than expected, but margins and premiums were right in line and steady with recent quarters.”
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