CNA Financial reveals Q3 financials

Its net investment losses for the quarter reached US$85 million compared to the net investment gains of US$19 million it declared a year before, including losses from fixed income securities after portfolio repositioning and a US$35 million loss in relation to the expected novation of a coinsurance agreement in CNA’s life and group segment.

Core income for the quarter – which CNA Financial uses to monitor its operations – was US$213 million. While this marked another decrease from the US$237-million core income declared the in prior year quarter, CNA’s property & casualty segments produced core income of US$260 million, a US$43-million growth driven by pre-tax increases in underwriting income and investment income from fixed-income securities. Excluding third party captives, the company’s property & casualty segments contributed 9% of its gross written premium growth.

On the other hand, CNA Financial’s life & group segment produced a core loss of US$22 million, down by US$63 million from the US$41-million core income it declared the year before, though margins increased by US$53 million to US$125 million as a result of the gross premium valuation.

CNA Financial’s corporate & other segment produced a core loss of US$25 million for the quarter, consistent with its performance the year before.

Despite the dips across figures, chair and chief executive officer of CNA Financial Dino Robusto said he was pleased with the quarterly results against the “backdrop of continued pressure on equity markets and elevated industry catastrophe losses”.

“Core income of US$213 million was down US$24 million due to a decline in LPs and common stock, offset to a large extent by an increase in our underwriting gain and increased investment income from our fixed income portfolio,” Robusto said. “The increased underwriting gain of US$85 million was driven by a 4.2 point improvement in the all-in combined ratio to 95.8%.

“Our extensive re-underwriting over the last several years helped to mitigate our catastrophe losses this quarter which were US$114 million pretax, down US$64 million from last year… We had strong top-line and bottom-line performance in our property & casualty segments and we remain optimistic about our growth opportunities with continued strong pricing and terms and conditions.”

CNA Financial declared a quarterly dividend of US$0.40 per share payable December 1 to stockholders of record on November 15.