RenRe Posts $126.9M Q1 Operating Profit

Bermuda-based RenaissanceRe Holdings Ltd. reported $126.9 million in first quarter net operating income available to common shareholders, compared to $86.6 million in the first quarter of 2002. Operating earnings per common share grew to $1.80 in the first quarter, from $1.24 per common share in the first quarter of the previous year.

The company announcement noted that the operating income figure “excludes realized investment gains of $24.4 million and $0.7 million in the first quarters of 2003 and 2002, respectively and also excludes the cumulative effect of a change in our accounting for goodwill of $9.2 million in the first quarter of 2002.” With the inclusion of the gains on investment RenRe had net income for the period of $155.404 million, compared to $81.129 million in 2002. Net income available to common shareholders rose 94% to $151.3million or $2.14 per common share in the quarter, from $78.1 million or $1.12 per common share for the same quarter of 2002.

James Stanard, chairman and CEO commented, “We are very pleased with the performance of our business across all categories. In particular, the 25 percent increase in Managed Catastrophe Premium reflects the ongoing strength of our market presence in our traditional core business.

“We are confident in our ability to deliver another year of growth in all of our businesses in 2003. At the same time, we remain committed to careful underwriting in a market in which property catastrophe prices have roughly stabilized. Significant premium from large transactions produced growth in the first quarter beyond our original expectations, and may create some variability in premium growth rates going forward. For the 2003 first quarter, we also estimate that we experienced approximately $25 million, or $0.35 per common share, of benefit from the low level of catastrophe loss activity compared to results from a period of normalized activity.”

Gross premiums written for the first quarter of 2003 increased by 49 percent to $685.2 million, compared to $460.8 million for the same quarter of 2002. Net premiums written for the first quarter of 2003 were $590.4 million, versus $379.1 million for the same quarter of 2002. Net premiums earned for the first quarter of 2003 were $263.5 million, compared to $150.3 million for the same quarter of 2002.

Those premiums include $126.5 million of gross written premiums, $126.5 million of net written premiums and $49.1 million of net premiums earned by the company’s consolidated joint venture, DaVinci Re during the first quarter of 2003, compared to $95.3 million of gross written premiums, $95.3 million of net written premiums and $23.6 million of net premiums earned by DaVinci Re during the first quarter of 2002.