Liberty Mutual reports 6.9% profit increase in Q4
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Liberty Mutual Holding Co. Inc. on Wednesday reported fourth-quarter 2023 net income of $654 million, a 6.9% increase over the year-ago period, which it says was driven by lower catastrophe events, and progress in U.S. retail markets and the company’s Global Risk Solutions.
Tim Sweeney, Liberty Mutual president and CEO, said during an earnings call Thursday that the results represent an “ongoing progress toward our enterprise financial targets during the quarter as we navigate a challenging personalized environment and then revolving commercial and specialty market.”
The total combined ratio of 95.1 improved by 2.3 percentage points in the fourth quarter, which Mr. Sweeney said was the result of “rate increases, discipline top line management and significant expense reductions.” Catastrophes were also “modest” for the quarter, with few storm and hail events.
Overall, net written premium of $11.3 million improved 5.4% over what was reported over the same period in the previous year.
Mr. Sweeney said underwriting capabilities will “continue to expand as we proactively assess and respond to current and emerging risks, including climate change and legal system abuse.”
For year-end 2023, the company saw its consolidated net income drop 45.6% over the previous year.
On the earnings call Thursday, President of U.S. Retail Markets Hamid Mirza explained that “many of the challenging macroeconomic trends observed in 2022 carried over into 2023 and adversely impacted our performance, especially during the first half of the year.”
“Moreover, historically severe catastrophe activity in Q2 and Q3 resulted in additional challenges to our profitability,” he said. Yet “despite these headwinds, we observed significant improvement in our financial performance as the year progressed, especially in Q4, where the weather was more benign, and where redactions and targeted underwriting started to more fully materialize in our results.”
