Liberty Mutual posts higher Q3 profit, net written premium

Liberty Mutual Holding Co. Inc. and its subsidiaries on Thursday reported $397 million in third-quarter earnings, up from $272 million in the year-earlier period.

Liberty Mutual Chairman and CEO David Long said in a statement that the 46% increase from the year-earlier period came “despite elevated catastrophe losses.”

“Results benefited from strong investment income as valuations in our partnership portfolio, booked on a quarter lag, rebounded from March lows,” he said.

Net written premium totaled $10.710 billion, an increase of $385 million or 3.7% from the third quarter of 2019.

The consolidated combined ratio before catastrophes, COVID-19, net incurred losses attributable to prior years and current accident year re-estimation was 93.6%, a decrease of 1.3 percentage points from the same period in 2019.

Including those impacts, the total combined ratio was 104%, an increase of 1.5 points from the year-earlier period.

Net realized gains for the third quarter were $219 million, an increase of $138 million or 170%.

The Ironshore Inc. acquisition and integration costs for the third quarter were $5 million, an increase of $1 million from the year-earlier period.

Restructuring costs for the third quarter were $28 million, an increase of $25 million over the same period in 2019.

Net income for the first nine months totaled $596 million, down from $1.338 billion in the same period last year.