Scor ‘marred’ by cat losses

Reinsurer SCOR said its Q1 results were “marred by high natural catastrophe losses,” adding 20.2 points to it combined ratio that hit 108.6%.

Total pre-tax losses from all natural catastrophes in the quarter hit €156m.

Financial Highlights

• Total GWP €1,613m, +3.3% (+3.8% at constant exchange rates)
• Net income €36m
• SCOR Global P&C combined ratio 108.6%
• SCOR Global P&C April renewals growth 14%
• SCOR Global Life’s operating margin 6.0% compared to 4.5% in Q1 2009

Denis Kessler, chairman and chief executive officer said: “The Q1 results were significantly affected by the heavy burden stemming from natural catastrophe losses, which had a total impact of €157m for the Group (pre-tax).

The net combined ratio in is 108.6%, compared to 99.4% in Q1’09, primarily due to the Chile and Haiti earthquakes and the European Xynthia storm natural catastrophes (€95m, €20m and €35m respectively). The total pre-tax losses from all natural catastrophes in the quarter are estimated at €156m, which make up 20.2 points of the combined ratio against 9.2 points in the same quarter last year.

Besides the major negative effect of these Nat Cat losses, the net combined ratio benefits from a positive trend on the attritional loss ratio, which is down by 0.6 points versus the normalised Q1 2009and by 1.7 points versus full-year 2009 attritional loss ratios.