@Travelers.
Travelers, the traditional first major US insurer to announce their quarterly results, published their numbers for Q1 2024 this week saying they had an "excellent" start to the year.
New-York-based Travelers said core income in the current quarter was $1.096 billion compared to $970 million in the prior year quarter.
This compares to when it published its full year 2023 and Q4 2023 results in January, which revealed it saw losses for its investments in Q4: net realised investment losses were $11 million pre-tax ($7 million after-tax), compared to net realised investment gains of $7 million pre-tax ($9 million after-tax) in the prior year quarter.
For the full year, it saw a net realised investment loss of $81 million compared to a loss of $156 million for full year 2022. Net investment income for Q4 2023 was $778 million and for the full year was $2.92 billion, an increase of $360 million from 2022.
“Our investment portfolio generated after-tax net investment income of $698 million for the quarter."
“Core income increased primarily due to higher net investment income and a higher underlying underwriting gain (i.e., excluding net prior year reserve development and catastrophe losses), partially offset by higher catastrophe losses,” it said in the press release on the results.
“The underlying underwriting gain was higher than in the prior year quarter, notwithstanding that the prior year quarter included a $211 million one-time tax benefit.”
Net realised investment gains in the current quarter were $35 million pre-tax ($27 million after-tax), compared to $6 million pre-tax ($5 million after-tax) in the prior year quarter.
“Our investment portfolio generated after-tax net investment income of $698 million for the quarter, driven by strong returns from our fixed income portfolio and higher returns from our non-fixed income portfolio,” said Alan Schnitzer, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer.
The press release said that income from the fixed income investment portfolio increased over the prior year quarter due to a higher average yield and growth in fixed maturity investments. “Income from the non-fixed income investment portfolio increased over the prior year quarter primarily due to higher private equity partnership returns,” it said.
“The year is off to a terrific start with strong profitability and production in all three segments, as well as higher investment income. In short, we’re firing on all cylinders,” Schnitzer added.
“As well as anticipated attritional losses, Convex was faced with the complexities of a number of natural catastrophes and man-made events."
Elsewhere, Bermuda-domiciled Convex Group released its financial results for the year ended 31 December 2023.
Gross written premiums were $4.2 billion, an increase of 39% from $3 billion in 2022.
Investment returns were a “positive” $240.4 million in 2023, compared to a loss of $107 million in 2022, “due to strong core fixed income returns, driven by high starting yields on the portfolio and a fall in risk-free yields during the last quarter”.
Its press release said the company achieved its first annual net profit since launch and significantly improved its underwriting result over 2022. “As well as anticipated attritional losses, Convex was faced with the complexities of a number of natural catastrophes and man-made events. Losses from these events were in line with expectations given the company’s market share and it benefited from favourable development on prior years.”
