Everest 3rd Quarter Income Up

By Lisa S. Howard, International Editor

NU Online News Service, Oct. 22, 10:59 a.m.EDT?Everest RE Group Ltd.'s after-tax operating incomecame to $126.2 million during the third quarter, an 89.9 percentincrease over the $66.5 million reported for the same period in2002.

Third-quarter 2003 net income came to $100.3 million, a 63.7percent increase from the $61.3 million reported during the thirdquarter of 2002, according to the St. Michael, Barbados-basedreinsurer. (Operating income differs from net income only by theexclusion of realized gains and losses on investments.)

For the nine months ended Sept. 30, after-tax operating incomewas $337.4 million, or $6.20 per diluted share, an increase of 66.9percent over the $202.2 million, or $3.97 per diluted share, in2002. Net income in the 2003 nine-month period was $304.2 million,or $5.59 per diluted share, which is an increase of 73.1 percentfrom the $175.7 million, or $3.45 per diluted share, reported in2002.

Gross premiums written for the third quarter of 2003 were $1.24billion, a 75.1 percent increase, compared to $708.0 million in2002. For the nine months ended Sept. 30, gross premiums writtenwere $3.31 billion, a 71.1 percent increase from $1.93 billion inthe 2002 nine-month period.

During the third quarter, net premiums written were $1.18billion, an increase of 79.2 percent from $660.6 million. For thenine-month period, net premiums written grew 71.1 percent to $3.12billion from $1.83 billion in 2002.

The company's combined ratio in the third quarter was 95,compared to 96.7 in 2002, while the combined ratio for thenine-month period was 94.7, compared with 97.8 in 2002.

Net investment income for the third quarter was $100.3 million,compared to $86.4 million in the third quarter of 2002. For thenine-month period, net investment income was $295.7 million, anincrease of 12.5 percent from $262.8 million in 2002.