White Mountains Insurance Group Ltd., a diversified property-casualty firm, reported first-quarter net income declined to $96 million from $176 million in the comparable 2005 period.
The Bermuda-based holding company attributed the decline primarily to the receipt in the prior year's quarter of a $74 million pretax special dividend from Montpelier Re.
White Mountains reported a combined ratio of 88, which group chairman Steve Fass said came despite some adverse development from the 2005 storms, "reflecting both improved underwriting conditions and generally benign weather patterns in the quarter."
The unit's pretax income for the quarter was $84 million compared with $55 million for the comparable 2005 period. Net written premiums were up slightly to $429 million from $419 million in the prior year period.
The group's OneBeacon unit reported first-quarter net income of $76 million compared with $160 million for the first quarter of 2005. Net written premiums were down 9 percent to $474 million compared with $520 million in the 2005 period.
Esurance posted a pretax loss of $4 million compared with pretax income of $2 million for the prior year period. Esurance CEO Gary Tolman said the unit is still aggressively growing its policyholder base "as we believe we are further building our intrinsic value."
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