Partner Re turns loss to profit

Partner Re announced a Q3 net income of $566.7m turning round a $151.7m loss in the same quarter last year.

Financial highlights (Q3 2008 in brackets)

• Net Premiums Written $891.5m ($869.2m)
• Net Premiums Earned $1,09bn ($1,08bn)
• Net Income/Loss $566.7m (-$151.7m)
• Operating Earnings $282.1m ($121.3m)
• Combined Ratio 78.1% (95.5%)

President and chief executive officer Patrick Thiele said: “Partner Re had another excellent quarter and first nine months of 2009, with both its reinsurance and capital markets activities performing well.

“For the first nine months of 2009, we achieved an operating return on beginning equity of 22%, and 30% growth in GAAP book value per share.

“Our reinsurance results benefited from a low level of large losses while our investment operations continued to participate fully in the improvement experienced by the global capital markets.”

Non-life

The Non-life segment reported net premiums written of $733m ($723m). The combined ratio was 78.1% (95.5%, which included 20 points related to the impact by Hurricanes Ike and Gustav). The Non-life technical result was $263m ($97m)

For the first nine months, Non-life net premiums written were $2.6bn ($2.8bn. The nine month technical result was $582m ($388m). The combined ratio was 82.5% (91.4%).

“As we move toward the end of 2009, the non-life market overall remains unchanged - stable to gradually deteriorating; and without any precipitating events, there will likely be a continuation of those trends in 2010,” said Thiele.

“Despite that trend, Partner Re continues to perform well, and we expect that to continue through the remainder of the year and into 2010, barring any unusually large loss events.

“Our acquisition of Paris Re enhances an already well-balanced portfolio of attractively priced risks. The integration will provide us with both increased diversification of reinsurance and capital markets risk, and, with expanded capital and resources, significant growth opportunities at a time when industry demand is likely to remain stagnant.

“We are confident that the larger and stronger Partner Re will be better able to achieve its financial goals, with reduced risk.”