Catastrophe premiums down 28.4%, loss ratio down 2.1 points for PartnerRe

PartnerRe Ltd.’s combined ratio improved 0.6 points in 2015, while net income dropped 90% in 2015 compared to 2014, the Pembroke, Bermuda-based insurance carrier reported Monday.

PartnerRe, which has a Toronto office, writes reinsurance and commercial primary lines. Its principal offices outside Bermuda are in Dublin, Greenwich, Conn., Paris and Zurich. In its financial results for the full year and final quarter of 2015, PartnerRe reported net premiums written, in non-life of $4.022 billion in 2015, down 10.6% from $4.5 billion in 2014. All figures are in United States dollars.

Total revenues were down 17%, from $6.48 billion in 2014 to $5.43 billion in 2015. Net income dropped 90%, from $1.068 billion in 2014 to $107.5 million in 2015.

In 2015, PartnerRe had net realized and unrealized investment losses of $297 million, compared to net realized and unrealized investment gains in 2014 of $372 million.

Expenses this year included an amalgamation termination fee and reimbursement of expenses of $315 million, paid Axis Capital Holdings Ltd., also of Pembroke. On Jan. 25, 2014, the boards of both Axis and PartnerRe announced the firms agreed to merge. But ultimately, PartnerRe shareholders voted instead to have the firm acquired by EXOR S.p.A., a Turin, Italy investment firm controlled by the Agnelli family.

Although EXOR’s acquisition offer was made public in April, PartnerRe’s directors were still recommending in July that shareholders vote in favour of merging with Axis Capital. But on Aug. 2 the PartnerRe directors recommended shareholders approve an acquisition by EXOR because EXOR’s latest offer had a “significant improvement in the price and terms.”

EXOR’s holdings include a significant minority of Fiat-Chrysler Automobile and CNH Industrial N.V., which makes power trains, commercial vehicles and heavy equipment under the Case and New Holland brands.

Had the merger with Axis Capital gone through, they would have formed a global top 5 reinsurer, Axis Capital said earlier.

PartnerRe’s net premiums written, including life, were $5.23 billion in 2015, down 9% from $5.72 billion in 2014. On a constant currency basis, the decrease was 3%, driven “primarily driven” by decreases in global specialty, cat and the North American non-life sub segments.

In global specialty, net premiums written dropped $214 million, or 12.6%, from $1.696 billion in 2014 to $1.482 billion last year. In North America non-life, net premiums written dropped $88 million, or 5.4%, from $1.630 billion in 2014

$1.542 billion in 2015. Cat premiums dropped 28.4%, from $380 million in 2014 to $272 million last year.

PartnerRe’s combined ratio improved 0.6 points, from 86.2% in 2014 to 85.6% in 2015. The loss ratio improved 2.1 points, from 56.1% in 2014 to 54% in 2015.

Related: PartnerRe shareholders approve EXOR acquisition, completing expected in Q1 2016

During the fourth quarter, net premiums written – including life – dropped 14%, from $1.22 billion in 2014 to $1.064 billion in the most recent quarter.

On a constant foreign exchange basis, Q4 premiums dropped 8% year over year, “primarily driven by the global specialty non-life sub segment.”

In non-life, net written premiums dropped 15%, from $917 million in Q4 2014 to $780 million in Q4 2015.

Global specialty net written premiums were $329 million in the latest quarter, compared to $446 million in Q4 2014. In North American non-life, net written premiums dropped slightly from $338 million in Q4 2014 to $335 million in the latest quarter. In catastrophe, net premiums written were $11 million in both the fourth quarter of 2014 and in the latest quarter.

Also in Q4 2015, PartnerRe reported net income of $177 million revenues of $1.38 billion, compared to net income of $280 million in revenues of $1.66 billion during the same period in 2014.