Assurant Profit Rises On Specialty

Assurant Inc. reported a 20 percent rise in second-quarter net income as its specialty property insurance business posted particularly strong results.

The New York-based carrier reported $151 million in net income, compared with $127.6 million for the comparable 2005 period. The specialty property business reported a 73 percent rise in operating income for the quarter.

Morgan Stanley analyst William Wilt noted the company beat his bank's earnings estimate by nearly 20 percent.

“The upside was driven by growth and margin in its specialty property–creditors placed homeowners particularly–where premiums increased 25 percent on a year-over-year basis,” he said.

But the analyst expressed come concern about the company's income shift from health products to the more volatile traditional p-c lines. On a year-to-date basis, he noted, p-c business represented 64 percent of operating income in the first half of this year, compared with 55 percent for the year-ago period.

Net earned premiums of $1.7 billion in the second quarter of 2006 increased 4 percent from $1.6 billion in the same period in 2005.

Net investment income in the second quarter of 2006 increased to $180.4 million from $177.0 million in the second quarter of 2005 as a result of higher invested assets and a rise in interest rates. The second quarter of 2005 included $9.4 million of investment income from a real estate partnership.