Chubb Stung by Catastrophe Losses, Net Income Still Steady

Chubb felt the sting of higher catastrophe losses during its 2018 first quarter and a dip in underwriting income, but the insurance giant made a profit and saw its P/C net premiums rise.

Net income for the quarter surpassed $1 billion, hitting $2.30 per share, virtually identical to its 2017 first-quarter earnings, which translated to $2.31 per share. Chubb’s P/C combined ratio was a healthy 90.1 versus 87.5 in the prior year.

At the same time, Chubb’s Q1 pretax catastrophe losses reached $380 million ($303 million after-tax), a big hit driven by East Coast winter storms, the California mudslides and other global catastrophe losses during the quarter. Over the same period a year ago, pretax losses were $206 million and the after-tax strike was $164 million in catastrophe losses.

Chubb Chairman and CEO Evan Greenberg framed the quarter as a positive one, despite high catastrophe losses.

“We had a very good quarter, though it was impacted by a higher level of catastrophe losses,” Greenberg said in prepared remarks. “We produced world-class ex-cat underwriting results, strong net investment income and good premium revenue growth while achieving better commercial P/C pricing in many of our businesses globally.”

Chubb booked $806 million in net investment income, a jump from $745 million during the same, year-ago period. On the other hand, P/C underwriting income was at $642 million, down 18 percent from $783 million in the 2017 first quarter.

Here are some additional result highlights: