Ahead of Merger Vote, PartnerRe & AXIS Release Preliminary Q2 Numbers

PartnerRe and AXIS Capital Holdings Ltd. won’t be holding their merger shareholder vote until August 7. In the meanwhile, they’ve released preliminary 2015 second-quarter results, underscoring the benefits of forming a stronger, combined entity to withstand market challenges.

PartnerRe, for example, disclosed a Q2 net loss of between $95 million and $115 million, impacted by “mark-to-market” losses on investments. The net loss per diluted share will be between $2.01 and $2.41, it said. This was impacted, in part, by expenses relating to the AXIS merger deal, which has been delayed by an unsolicited $6.8 billion bid for PartnerRe from Italian investment firm EXOR SpA.

AXIS, meanwhile, has not not yet disclosed net income/losses. It booked Q2 operating income of between $91 million and $97 million, impacted, in part by catastrophe and weather-related pre-tax net losses of $39 million stemming from weather events in the U.S.A. and Australia.

AXIS added that large losses in its insurance marine business also contributed about $40 million in pre-tax net losses, about $33 million above its historical annual average for this particular line of business. AXIS blamed “energy offshore events” which will likely result in insured industry losses above $1.5 billion. At the same time, AXIS said that the marine line remains “one of our most profitable lines” and has delivered a combined ration below 80 over the last 5 years.

PartnerRe plans to report its final unaudited second quarter results after the market closes on July 27. AXIS plans to do the same thing a day later, on July 28.

For now, here are other highlights of their preliminary Q2 results:

PartnerRe

• Second Quarter Operating Earnings between $100 million and $120 million.
• Second Quarter Operating Earnings per diluted share between $2.10 and $2.50.
• Second Quarter Annualized Operating ROE between 6.7% and 7.9%.
• Second Quarter Annualized Net Loss ROE between (7.6)% and (6.4)%.
• Diluted Book Value between $127.00 and $127.40 per share.
• Diluted Tangible Book Value between $115.65 and $116.05 per share.

AXIS Capital Holdings

• Continued favorable prior year loss reserve development of $65 million
• Second quarter operating income per diluted common share between $0.90 and $0.96 per common share
• Second quarter annualized operating return on average common equity¹ between 6.8% and 7.3%
• Diluted book value of between $51.76 and $51.86 per common share
• Diluted book value per share this quarter was negatively impacted by an increase in unrealized losses on investments, following the increase in government bond yields and the widening of credit spreads in non-government bonds, which was partially offset by the positive operating results this quarter
• Diluted tangible book value¹ of between $50.78 and $50.88 per common share

Sources: PartnerRe, AXIS Capital Holdings