Mercury General Reports Higher Profit
NU Online News Service, July 28, 9:23 a.m. EDT?Mercury General Corp., a major California auto insurer, improved its second-quarter results yesterday, posting a $43.4 million net profit, which compares with $1.3 million for the period last year when the company sustained realized investment losses.
The insurer said the figure for company-wide premiums written also improved to $548.5 million during the past quarter, up 22.6 percent from $447.3 million reported one year ago, thanks to both policy count growth and rate increases. The combined ratio also improved to 94.3 percent, down from 96.9 percent during the 2002 second quarter.
Mercury General reiterated a couple of developments that took place in the past quarter. It noted that the California Department of Insurance has approved rate hikes in its personal automobile insurance by 6.9 percent for Mercury Casualty Company and California Automobile Insurance Company, and by 3.8 percent in Mercury Insurance Company. These rate boosts, the company said, were implemented on June 23.
The company also noted that it is in discussions with New Jersey insurance regulators to enter that state's personal automobile market. The insurer added that if it does receive the final approval, the company will start its New Jersey operations before the end of the current quarter.
In this initial phase, some 50 agents will be appointed throughout the state. "New Jersey continues the company's expansion outside of California and marks the ninth state in which the company will write automobile insurance business," Mercury General said.
Based in Los Angeles, the company underwrites all risk classifications of auto insurance. It also offers homeowners, mechanical breakdown, commercial and dwelling fire insurance, and commercial property insurance.
Mercury General markets its policies through some 2,700 independent agents, a third of which are located in California. Last year, the company posted more than $1.7 billion in sales.
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