Liberty Mutual Rebounds From COVID-19 Challenges

Liberty Mutual’s 2021 second quarter swung to a profit as the insurer rebounded from challenges it faced last year due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The company reported $769 million in net income for Q2, compared to a $320 million loss over the same period in 2020. The insurer’s combined ratio came in at 98.1, versus 105.2 in the 2020 second quarter.

Liberty Mutual Chairman and CEO David Long said in prepared remarks that the results marked “a considerable improvement,” benefiting from strong investment results and underwriting gains as the impact from COV-19 and the related economic downturn began to fade.

Here are additional result highlights:

• Catastrophe losses came in at $660 million, improved from $878 million in the 2020 second quarter. The number is net of reinsurance and pre-tax.

• Catastrophe losses for the first six months of 021 landed at $1.7 billion, versus just under $1.2 billion through the first half of 2020.

• Liberty Mutual booked no additional losses for COVID-19 in the 2021 second quarter, versus $529 million in pandemic-related losses the year before.

• Net written premium surpassed $10.8 billion, 11 percent higher than the nearly $9.8 billion in net written premium from the 2020 second quarter. Liberty Mutual’s Global Retail Markets and Global Risk Solutions premiums both generated solid gains, the latter by double digits.

• Restructuring costs totaled $110 million for Q2.

Toward the end of the second quarter, Liberty Mutual announced it would acquire fellow mutual insurer State Auto for about $1 billion, as well as Malaysian insurer AmGeneral.

Source: Liberty Mutual