Two of the oldest participants in the Bermuda casualty insurance market reported markedly different second-quarter results, and the older one, ACE, is benefiting from the problems of competitor XL, executives said this morning.
During a conference call announcing a 15 percent jump in net income for the second quarter, Evan Greenberg, chairman and CEO of ACE Limited, now a Zurich-based holding company, said his company's insurance operating subsidiaries are poised to take advantage of opportunities created by concerns about XL's financial wherewithal.
Asked by an investment analyst whether XL's woes were having a positive or negative impact on ACE's business, Mr. Greenberg remarked, "It hasn't affected our business negatively."
He continued, "Brokers have a job to do and clients have a job to do. They need to buy the right coverage, and they need to buy it from a company they believe will stand behind [its] obligations."
The brokers and clients, he said, "are going to use all available information, and if a company has a weakness, it's their job to notice that and to make their judgments."
"If any company has a problem–and in the soft market that always happens–then you've got to know we are going to take advantage of every opportunity that becomes available," he said.
Yesterday, XL Capital reported a second-quarter net income decline of 57 percent and a $2 billion plan to commute reinsurance agreements with its former subsidiary bond insurer, Security Capital Assurance.
Concerns about the significant amount of capital XL has to raise to complete the deal and possible impacts to XL's competitive position prompted reviews for possible downgrade from the rating agencies.
As to specific opportunities opening up for ACE, Brian Dowd, CEO of ACE's North American insurance operations, said the company has seen an uptick in submission and binding activity for longer-tailed professional liability lines.
"We've seen people become a little more discriminate" about the company they place their professional liability with, he said.
John Keogh, chief executive officer of ACE Overseas General, said he saw movement in the same areas outside the United States, with clients and brokers exercising more discretion, in particular, about "who leads the program."
Reporting on the quarter's results, Mr. Greenberg noted that ACE's underwriting results benefited from good accident-year results, positive prior-period development, and a relatively light level of catastrophe losses, even though the quarter included a moderate level of flood losses impacting ACE's crop portfolio.
The overall combined ratio for the quarter was 87.8, compared to 87.6 for second-quarter 2007.
Mr. Greenberg also noted that second-quarter 2008 marked the first quarter in which the $2.4 billion acquisition of Combined Insurance, announced last December, figured into the numbers. He said the acquired accident and health insurer contributed to revenues and earnings, noting that net written premium grew 17 percent in the quarter.
Overall net premiums were $3.6 billion in second-quarter 2008, compared to $3 billion for second-quarter 2007.
Net income was $746 million, or $2.20 per share, compared to $649 million, or $1.93 per share for second-quarter 2007.
For the first six months, net income was $1.1 billion, or $3.31 per share.
During the conference call, Mr. Greenberg was asked repeatedly about ACE's appetite to do more acquisitions, specifically whether reinsurers were among ACE's targets.
"I'm not sure what a reinsurance acquisition does for ACE," he said, noting that the current reinsurance operation has the ability to expand organically when market conditions are right.
"We do see everything," he said, referring to companies being shopped. He added, however, that "we do have a strategy about where we want to take the company and an acquisition has to fit that strategy."
Responding to a more specific question about whether ACE is looking to buy a life reinsurer, he said, "We do look at everything, but I don't mind telling you [that] in our game plan we have far more interest in life insurance than life reinsurance."
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