CNA Quarterly Profit Up 75%

By Michael Ha

NU Online News Service, Feb. 10, 2:42 p.m.EST?CNA Financial Corporation said its quarterly netincome rose $131 million, or 75 percent, boosted primarily bycontinued improved underwriting results for property-casualtyoperations and improved net realized investment results.[@@]

For the 2004 fourth quarter, the Chicago-based insurer posted$305 million as compared to $174 million for the same period in2003. For the quarter, the p-c combined ratio was 96.9, as comparedwith 98.6 in the prior-year period.

The fourth-quarter net realized investment gains were $104million, in contrast to a loss of $20 million reported during theyear-ago period.

The insurer also reported far better results for full-year 2004.The company said its 2004 net profit came in at $441 million, a bigswing from 2003 when it reported a loss of $1.43 billion.

In 2003, the company posted poor full-year results becauseunfavorable net prior-year development of $1.85 billion after-tax,as well as an increase in bad-debt reserves for insurance andreinsurance receivables of $396 million after taxes.

CNA said its p-c operations net written premiums for the fourthquarter were $1.68 billion, down slightly from the year-ago quarterfigure of $1.72 billion. For full-year 2004, p-c operations netwritten premiums came in at $6.97 billion, up from $ 6.6 billionduring 2003.

CNA Financial, majority owned by Loews Corp., is the country'sseventh largest commercial insurance writer and the 14th largestp-c company. CNA's insurance products include standard commerciallines, specialty lines, surety, marine and other p-c coverages.CNA's services include risk management, information services,underwriting, risk control and claims administration.