Amid storm losses, Navigators posts profit
Stamford-based insurer The Navigators Group, which agreed earlier this year to an acquisition by insurance giant Hartford Financial Services, posted a quarterly profit despite storm losses, the company reported this week.
The $4.6 million bottom line for the third quarter factored in net losses and loss-related expenses of $11.8 million from Hurricane Florence and Typhoon Jebi, which struck Japan in September. It also took into account a reserve “strengthening” of $16.5 million, mainly within the primary casualty division of the U.S. insurance business.
In comparison, the company incurred in the same period last year losses and loss-related expenses of about $75 million from Hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria and the Puebla, Mexico, earthquake.
“In a quarter in which the insurance industry experienced significant natural catastrophe activity, our natural catastrophe loss estimates were well within our expectations,” Navigators CEO and President Stanley Galanski said in a statement.
Navigators recorded a
“combined ratio” of 99 percent for the first nine months of the year, compared with about 106 percent a year ago. The ratio measures the percentage of premiums used to cover losses and underwriting expenses. Any ratio less than 100 reflects an underwriting profit.
Third-quarter revenues reached approximately $377 million, up about 15 percent from a year ago.
“We benefited from modest rate increases across the majority of our specialty product lines,” Galanski said. “The ongoing strength of the U.S. economy, and particularly the construction segment, also benefited us, providing a strong growth of new business.”
In August, Navigators announced that it would be acquired by The Hartford for $2.1 billion.
A 30-day “go-shop” period followed, during which Navigators solicited 44 potential acquirers. The company did not receive any alternative offers in that window.
The acquisition is set to close in the first half of 2019.
In its largest deal closed this year, Navigators announced in early June it had acquired for about $41 million the Antwerp, Belgium-based specialty underwriter Bracht, Deckers & Mackelbert NV and its affiliated insurance company, ASCO.
Navigators’ Antwerp office is now its largest in Europe, with other centers in Madrid, Milan, Paris and Rotterdam.