Diversification boosts Catlin GWP by 11% despite rates decrease

Catlin today announced that its gross written premiums (GWP) grew by 11% to $4.9bn in the first nine months of 2014.

The insurer said despite the decreasing rates in the wholesale market – the growth had been helped by its diversified portfolio.

Across most of its product lines Catlin enjoyed a double-digit growth.

Its property GWP grew by 19% to $573m, energy and marine by 13% to $758m, while reinsurance grew by 11% to $2bn. Its casualty business grew by 9% to $1bn while specialty, war and political risk grew by 7% to $399m.

The group incurred claims from two catastrophe events during the third quarter; Hurricane Odile, which struck the Baja California peninsula of Mexico in September, and the flooding in the state of Jammu and Kashmir in northern India in September.

Three large single-risk losses were also sustained during the quarter; the loss of Malaysian Airlines Flight MH17 over Ukraine in July, the aircraft losses caused by fighting at the Tripoli airport in July and a fire at a US sawmill in July.

But Chief executive Stephen Catlin said despite the events, aggregate catastrophe and large single-risk losses were still below expectations for the nine-month period.

Catlin added: “Catlin continues to perform well across the business. Gross premiums written are rising in accordance with our business plan, with continued strong growth from our US, European, Asia-Pacific and Canadian hubs.

“Rating levels are still adequate for most classes of business, and rates across our entire portfolio decreased by 2.9% during the nine-month period.

“We still firmly believe that our highly diversified portfolio – both by underwriting hub and by class of business – provides Catlin with significant advantages during a period of decreasing rates in wholesale markets.”

The amount of GWP written from its London hub grew by 11% to $2.2bn. In America it grew by 10% to $1.1bn, while from its international hub, GWP grew by 17% to $1bn.

The amount of GWP written from its Bermudan hub dipped slightly by 0.7% to $537m.