Hartford Fourth-Quarter Profit Up 76 %
NU Online News Service, Jan. 29, 1:54 p.m. EST?Hartford Financial Services Group Inc. said its 2003 fourth-quarter net profit rose 76 percent on a year-over-year basis, to $454 million from $258 million reported one year ago, helped by record property-casualty operating income and improved investment returns.[@@]
Hartford still posted a net loss for 2003 overall. The company was hurt by the $1.7 billion after-tax asbestos reserve charge it took in the first quarter. The Hartford, Conn.-based insurer said it had a net loss of $91 million for the year, compared to net income of $1.0 billion for the full-year 2002.
Excluding the effect of the asbestos reserve charge, Hartford said its operating income for the year was $1.45 billion, higher than $1.25 billion for 2002.
Commenting on the quarterly results, Hartford Chief Executive Ramani Ayer said, "It was a record quarter on many fronts: record annuity sales, record mutual fund sales, record property-casualty operating income, solid combined ratios, and written premiums for business insurance exceeding $1 billion for the first time ever."
Mr. Ayer commented that Hartford's quarter results cap a quarter and end 2003 with a company that is "stronger, bigger and better prepared for the road ahead than it was 12 months ago."
In the property-casualty segments, Hartford produced record p-c operating income of $211 million for the fourth quarter, up 49 percent from the 2002 fourth quarter.
The company's combined ratio for the North American property-casualty units came in at 95.6. The ongoing North American property-casualty segments?which include business insurance, specialty commercial and personal lines?saw earned premiums grow by 13 percent to $2.2 billion on a year-over-year basis and net written premiums increase by 9 percent to $2.1 billion.
Hartford said its business insurance written premiums exceeded $1 billion for the first time.
"In business insurance, we achieved 17 percent new business growth in the fourth quarter of 2003, and 17 percent new business growth for all of 2003," Mr. Ayer noted. "Our combined ratios in our North American property-casualty operations were under 100 in each quarter of the year, and net investment income improved in each quarter," he said.
Personal lines also reported solid performance, with a 96.8 combined ratio and earnings of $25 million for the quarter, compared to $2 million a year earlier. Specialty-commercial lines reported profit of $25 million, in contrast to a loss of $24 million a year before. Hartford's property-casualty net investment income also improved, up 8 percent to $308 million from $284 reported during the corresponding quarter in 2002.
© Arc, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to TMSalesOperations@arc-network.com. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.