Co-operators Group produces $64 million income for 2003

The Co-operators Group announced at is recent AGM that it has paid $4.7 million total in dividends of shares and cash to its member owners 28 Canadian co-operatives and other organizations as well as $10.7 million in dividends to participating life policyholders.The company produced strong results last year, with its life operations producing net income of $41.7 million and return on equity of 12.4%. Co-operators General Insurance Co. already announced net income of $44 million. Overall, the company produced net income of $64 million.”We’re pleased the progress we are making in our areas of strategic focus is leading to improvements in our financial results,” says The Co-operators president and CEO Kathy Bardswick. “But I would caution that with a return on equity of 6.8% in our property and casualty operations, we need to continue to be diligent about controlling costs in order to secure long-term viability for our member-owners and rate stability for our clients.” Bardswick points specifically to the auto product, which has shown some signs of improvement in provinces where government reform has been achieved, but is still producing high losses with no sign of rate stability.