Harleysville Group Inc. has reported a 65 percent decline in second-quarter net income compared to the same period in 2007 due primarily to high catastrophe losses.

The company said net income for the quarter was $9.4 million compared to $26.4 million in 2007.

The company reported $237.9 million in net written premiums for the quarter compared to $219.1 million last year.

Harleysville explained that the increase is partly due to a previously announced amendment to the intercompany pooling arrangement between Harleysville Group and Harleysville Mutual Insurance Company. Excluding the impact from the pooling change, net written premiums declined 2 percent in the quarter.

Losses for the quarter were higher, with Harleysville reporting an $18 million underwriting loss compared to a $5.7 million gain in 2007. Harleysville said catastrophe losses totaled $25 million compared to $4.5 million for the same period in 2007.

Harleysville's statutory combined ratio jumped over 10 points, from 96.5 last year to 107.7 this past quarter.

Personal auto was the only segment that showed improvement with respect to the combined ratio, dropping from 97.4 in 2007 to 90.2 this past quarter. Homeowners showed the highest climb, from 90.3 in 2007 to 142 this past quarter.

Investment income rose to $28.6 million from $27.9 million in 2007, but realized investment gains dropped to $183,000 from $678,000.

Michael L. Browne, Harleysville's president and chief executive officer, said, “We were impacted by 14 catastrophes, the highest number of severe weather events to affect our operating territories during one quarter in Harleysville Group's history as a public company, which dates back to 1986.”

Mr. Browne also said that “excluding the impact of the catastrophe losses from the second quarters of this year and last year, and the one-time benefit from the office building sale in 2007, our underlying operating earnings per share improved over last year, and our underlying statutory combined ratio remained below 100 percent….”

Special Reports /

Catastrophe Losses Behind Harleysville 2Q Decline

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