NU Online News Service, Feb.11, 11:00 a.m. EST

XL employees are no longer working to avoid a crisis, the Bermuda company's chief executive said, reporting a 2009 fourth-quarter net loss of $40.3 million an improvement over the $1.4 billion loss for the period in the prior year.

For the full year the company reported Tuesday a 2009 profit of $206.6 million, compared to a $2.6 billion loss for 2008.

The results for the full-year figures, as well as improved fourth-quarter results, primarily reflected the absence of significant accounting charges, which put both periods in red ink for 2008. Lower realized investment losses also contributed to the improvement.

"We don't calculate our success as related to avoiding a crisis," said CEO Michael McGavick at the end of an earnings conference call last night.

"We're pleased that we've done so, and delighted with where we stand, but we really count our success when we outperform our competitors in various ways. That's what we strive to do now," he said, signaling "the next phase at XL."

Over the course of the past two years, when financial results were hit by damaging investment losses and by restructuring and accounting charges, XL management said it worked to reverse its poor results in several ways--ending a damaging foray into the financial guaranty business, strengthening its enterprise risk management, de-risking its investment portfolio and reshuffling the insurance business with a stronger near-term emphasis on short-tail lines.

In the process, however, XL lost some customers and saw others cut down the amount of business they placed with the company, Mr. McGavick noted earlier in the call, highlighting the ability to win those customers back as an "odd opportunity" for XL to grow during the soft market.

The opportunity, he said, "is not huge but it's meaningfully different from what the market is experiencing," he said.

Mr. McGavick said employees who stuck it out through troubled times are now poised to take advantage of underwriting opportunities, listing selected professional liability lines and aviation as area where rates are encouraging. On the property side, "we see rate levels that continue to encourage us to apply.....more capital to some catastrophe zones," he added.

"Even though we would cite the overall [market pricing] trends as negative, there are opportunities for us to go out there and sell XL and that's exactly what we'll be doing," Mr. McGavick said.

As for 2009, however, gross premiums written fell 19.2 percent to $6.1 billion, primarily as a result of planned reductions in targeted areas, according to executives.

The overall combined ratio fell to 93.6 in 2009 from 94.9 in 2008.

The full-year 2009 net income figure of $206.6 million, translated to 61 cents per share, compared to a $2.6 billion loss in 2008, or $10.94 per-share. A key driver of the 2008 net loss was a $1.4 billion charge related to commutation agreements with Syncora Holdings Ltd. incurred in August 2008, terminating reinsurance and other obligations related to financial guaranty business it was once involved in.

For the fourth quarter loss of $40.3 million translated to 12 cents per share, compared to the $1.4 billion loss, or $4.33 per share in fourth-quarter 2008.

Net realized losses on investments of $254.8 million, were the principal driver of the fourth-quarter 2009 result. Key drivers of the fourth-quarter 2008 result losses were two accounting charges--a goodwill impairment charge of $990 million related to XL's 1998 acquisition of MidOcean Re and a $400 million charge to account for restructuring the company's investment portfolio.

(Goodwill generally refers to the value of intangible assets in an acquisition, typically accounted for initially as the amount paid for a target company over book value.)

Turning to investment results during the conference call, Mr. McGavick said that XL's work to de-risk its investment portfolio is now done, allowing the company to change its focus to one of optimizing investment holdings.

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