P&C premiums up 17%, combined ratio improves 0.8 points for SCOR

Despite a 28 million euro onshore energy claim, a massive explosion in the Chinese port of Tianjin and a major earthquake hitting Chile, French reinsurer SCOR SE reported Wednesday its third-quarter combined ratio improved nearly a point from 2014.

Paris-based SCOR released Wednesday its financial results, reporting gross written premiums, in property & casualty, of 1.497 billion euros in the most recent quarter, up 17% from 1.279 billion euros in Q3 2014.

The euro closed Tuesday at $1.43.

SCOR’s total gross written premiums in Q3 were 3.5 billion euros, of which 2.007 billion euros were from life.

SCOR was ranked fifth (behind Munich Re, Swiss Re, Hannover Re and Berkshire Hathaway), by A.M. Best Company Inc., on a list of global reinsurance groups. Those rankings were by reinsurance premiums written in 2014. A.M. Best published the list Sept. 2.

SCOR reported Wednesday its combined ratio was 90.8% in the most recent quarter, a 0.8-point improvement from 91.6% in Q4 2014.

The combined ratio for the first nine months improved by 2.2 points, from 92.8% in 2014 to 90.6% this year.

During the first nine months, “the effect of the low nat cat activity has been slightly counter-balanced by the unusually high number of large man-made losses in Q2 and Q3 2015,” SCOR stated in a press release.

Natural catastrophe losses contributed 1.6 points to the combined ratio for the first nine months, including a 13-million euro impact from an earthquake – measuring 8.3 on the Richter scale – that struck Chile Sept. 16.

There were also 3.1-points of “cumulative impact” from three events.

One was 32 million euros, net before taxes, arising from explosions Aug. 12 in the Chinese port of Tianjin, which killed more than 170 and damaged warehouses, vehicles and shipping containers.

The other two were energy claims – one offshore, in the second quarter, of 56 million euros net before tax and the other onshore, in the most recent quarter, of 28 million euros net before tax.

SCOR also announced Wednesday it was notified by Autorité de Contrôle Prudentiel et de Résolution of ACPR’s intention to approve SCOR’s internal model.

SCOR’s internal model is used for risk management, capital allocation and solvency, among other things.

ACPR is an independent administrative authority attached to France’s central bank. ACPR has supervisory authority over financial institutions and insurers, including compliance with solvency and liquidity requirements.

SCOR says its internal model is a stochastic model that models dependencies across risks, including life and P&C underwriting risk, market and credit risk, and operational risk.

In its financial results, SCOR reported gross written P&C premiums of 4.356 billion euros this year, up 18.4% from 3.679 billion euros during the same period in 2014.

Total gross written premiums – including life – were 9.996 billion euros for the first nine months of this year, up 19.3% from 8.382 billion euros during the same period in 2014.

Net investment income was 140 million euros in the most recent quarter, unchanged from Q3 2014. For the first nine months, SCOR reported net investment income of 505 million euros this year, up 20% from 421 million euros last year.

SCOR’s net income was 165 million euros in the latest quarter, up 36.4% from 121 million euros in Q3 2014. Year-to-date, as of Sept. 30, SCOR reported net income of 492 million euros, up 30.5% from 377 million euros in Q3 2014.