Liberty Mutual Holding Company’s net income more than doubled in the 2021 third quarter compared to the same period a year, driven by rate hikes, investment gains and improved risk selection even as catastrophe losses soared above $1 billion.

The Boston, Mass.-based company booked $721 million in net income during the quarter, compared to $397 million a year ago. That’s an 81.6 percent improvement.

Those results came in even as catastrophe losses surpassed $1.2 billion during the quarter, up from $980 million in the 2020 third quarter. About $812 million of that catastrophe loss total came from Hurricane Ida.

Liberty Mutual’s combined ratio hit 104.4 during Q3, up from 103.6 in the same, year-ago quarter,

Pre-tax net investment income landed at $1 billion, up from $467 million a year ago, fueled by private capital investments.

Net written premium surpassed $11.4 billion during the quarter, up 6.5 percent from $10.7 billion over the same period in 2020. Broken down, Global Retail Markets saw premiums grow by 5.4 percent; Global Risk Solutions increased 11.3 percent.

For the first nine months of 2021, Liberty Mutual reported $32.5 billion in net written premium, up from $30.5 billion in the first nine months of 2020. Liberty Mutual’s combined ratio through Sept. 30, 2021 is 101.3 for the year, compared to 101.8 over the same period in 2020.

Source: Liberty Mutual