ZURICH, Switzerland—A lack of catastrophe claims helped Swiss Reinsurance Co. record a nine-month profit of 103 million Swiss francs ($100.4 million) despite other limiting factors, the reinsurer said Tuesday.
The nine-month profit was well off the 884 million Swiss francs ($861.7 million) Swiss Re reported in net income for the same period last year. Heavy mark-to-market losses on hedges and corporate bonds and impairments on securitized products booked earlier this year weighed on nine-month 2009 net income.
Swiss Re’s net investment income for the first nine months slipped 16.4% to 5.28 billion Swiss francs ($5.15 billion). Third-quarter investment income was up 7.2% to 1.77 billion Swiss francs ($1.73 billion).
A lack of catastrophe claims helped Swiss Re’s combined ratio on property/casualty business improve for the nine-month period to 88.2%, compared with 95.7% a year ago.
For the third quarter, the Zurich, Switzerland-based reinsurer reported net income of 334 million Swiss francs ($325.6 million) compared with a loss of 304 million Swiss francs ($296.3 million) for the same period in 2008.
“We are comparing a light catastrophe quarter this year to a heavy one last year, but the result nonetheless is quite attractive,” George Quinn, Swiss Re’s chief financial officer, said in a Tuesday conference call. “All of our businesses have performed very well.”
The strong quarter shows Swiss Re is emerging from difficult times, said Stefan Lippe, Swiss Re’s chief executive officer.
“I firmly believe that we are reaching our goals we set this year of focusing on our core business, ensuring capital strength and further improving the company’s ability to compete,” Mr. Lippe said during the call. “I’m proud to say we have come a long way.”
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