CNA Sees Big Q4 Gains as Market Hardens

CNA Financial Corp. benefited significantly from rate hikes and premium growth in Q4, reporting more than $387 million in net income versus $273 million the year before.

Net income per share during the quarter reached $1.42 per diluted share for the Chicago-based company, up from $1 in Q4 2019.

CNA Chairman and CEO Dino Robusto said the company has been maximizing the benefits of a hardening market.

“We continued to leverage the hardening market conditions, achieving 12 percent in rate increases and 12 percent growth in net written premium as well as improving both our underlying and total combined ratios by over two points,” Robusto touted in prepared remarks. “We are well positioned to extend our strong execution in the favorable market conditions that we expect to continue in 2021.”

Here are Q4 and full year result highlights:

• CNA’s property/casualty operations booked close to $2.2 billion in gross written premiums and more than $1.9 billion in net written premiums during the fourth quarter. Over the same period in 2019, those numbers came in at $1.9 billion and $1.7 billion, respectively.
• The P/C combined ratio landed at 93.5 in Q4, compared to 95.6 in the same, year-ago quarter. The number included 0.8 points of catastrophe loss impact, compared with 2.9 points in Q4 2019. CNA said there was no change to its COVID-19 loss estimate, announced during the 2020 second quarter at approximately $182 million.
• Specialty insurance produced $883 million in gross written premiums and $809 million in net written premiums during Q4 2020, much higher than the $752 million and $705 million, respectively, generated in Q4 2019.
• Commercial insurance gross written and net written premiums came in at $975 million and $862 million, respectively, during Q4. The year before, those numbers were $867 million and $779 million, respectively.
• P/C net investment income reached $324 million during the fourth quarter, down from $336 million in the 2019 fourth quarter.
• For all of 2020, net income reached $690 million, compared to $1 billion in 2019. The P/C combined ratio for the year was 100.9, versus 96.7 the previous year.

Source: CNA