P&C premiums up for reinsurer SCOR

French reinsurance firm SCOR SE released Tuesday financial results for the latest period, recording net income of 318 million Euros on gross written premiums of 7.214 billion Euros for the first nine months of 2012.

For the three months ending Sept. 30, Paris-based SCOR recorded net income of 112 million Euros on gross written premiums of 2.579 billion Euros, compared to net income of 188 million Euros on net written premiums of 2.021 billion Euros during the third quarter of 2011. As of Nov. 13 the Euro was worth $1.27.

For property and casualty, SCOR said its gross written premiums were 3.515 billion Euros for the first nine months of 2012, up from 2.981 billion Euros during the same period in 2011. Its global P&C operation has offices in Toronto and Montreal.

During the third quarter, P&C gross written premiums increased 21.7% year-over-year, from 1.037 billion Euros in 2011 to 1.262 billion Euros this year.

Within P&C, SCOR provides treaty reinsurance in property, auto and liability and also provides specialty P&C insurance in agriculture, aviation, surety, engineering, inherent defects, marine, energy and space.

SCOR stated in a press release that in P&C its combined ratio for the first nine months was 93.7%, due to both a net attritional loss ratio “in line with the 60% strategic plan assumption” and below-budget natural catastrophe net loss ratio of 4.8 points.

“In the third quarter 2012 alone, the Nat Cat net loss ratio stands at 5.4%, including upward revisions of the 2012 earthquakes in Italy (+EUR 27 million) and of the 2011 floods in Thailand (+EUR 18 million, thereby reaching SCOR’s maximum loss threshold net of retrocession),” SCOR stated.

As of Sept. 30, it had invested assets (excluding funds withheld by cedants) of 13.525 billion Euros, of which 9% is cash, 4% is stock, 4% is real estate and 81% is fixed income.

In its investment business, SCOR said it has “no exposure to the sovereign debt of Greece, Ireland, Italy, Portugal or Spain.”

For the first nine months of 2012, SCOR generated 282 million Euros from its invested assets.