"The third quarter was very active in terms of catastrophic events," said Jim Bryce, president and chief executive officer of IPC Holdings. Despite the increase in catastrophe activity, Mr. Bryce said he is gratified with IPC's results for the third quarter, which are "reflective of our selective and disciplined underwriting approach."

For the nine months ended Sept. 30, 2003, net income was $195.2 million, or $4.05 per share, compared to $137.9 million, or $2.86 per share, for the corresponding period of 2002.

During the nine-month period, net operating income was $188.8 million, or $3.91 per share, compared to $146.2 million, or $3.03 per share, for the same period in 2002.

During the third quarter of 2003, the company wrote gross premiums of $45.8 million, compared to $35.5 million in the same period of 2002?an increase of 29 percent.

For the nine-month period, IPC wrote gross premiums of $302.3 million, an increase of 25 percent over the $242.7 million written during the corresponding period in 2002.

Net premiums earned in the third quarter of 2003 were $77.8 million, compared to $62.9 million earned in the third quarter of 2002?an increase of 24 percent. Net premiums earned for the nine-month period in 2003 were $224.4 million, an increase of 35 percent compared with the $165.8 million reported in the nine-month period of 2002.

The company earned net investment income of $11.7 million in the quarter, compared to $12.4 million in the third quarter of 2002. Net investment income for the nine-month period of 2003 and 2002 was $34.9 million and $37.4 million, respectively.

"This decrease is primarily due to the decline in the average yield of our investment portfolio because of lower interest rates and their impact on the reinvestment of maturing fixed income securities, offset in part by the increase in our invested assets, due to our positive operating cash flow in the period," IPC said.

Discussing the catastrophe activity during the quarter, Mr. Bryce noted that Property Claim Service estimated total insured losses of $2.9 billion from seven catastrophe events in the United States, including $1.2 billion for Hurricane Isabel, which affected several mid-Atlantic states in September.

The $2.9 billion estimated price tag for these events, which will likely increase once more claims are reported, makes the third quarter of 2003 the "third-most-costly third quarter" since PCS began tracking such events, he said.

He also cited Hurricane Fabian, which hit Bermuda in early September and has estimated insured losses of $350 million. In Asia, he said, Typhoon Maemi struck Korea and an earthquake of 8.2 on the Richter scale hit Japan.

These catastrophe events, combined with changes to catastrophe models that are used by reinsurance buyers to determine probable maximum losses, "have served to heighten the awareness of exposures and insurance companies' needs to purchase greater amounts of catastrophe protection," Mr. Bryce said.

"This in turn is helping the continuation of the healthy market in which we operate and is being reflected in increased demand for capacity for the Jan. 1, 2004, renewals that we have seen to date," he added.