Markel International opens new offices in spite of challenging market conditions

Markel Corporation, parent company of MINT Canadian Specialty, has reported a drop of US$14 million in its gross written premiums for 2007 Q3 over the same period of 2006.
The company reported its gross written premium was US$162 million in 2007 Q3.
For the nine months ending Sept. 30, 2007, gross written premiums were US$562 million, compared to gross written premiums of US$581 million in 2006.
The company also reported an 87% combined ratio for 2007 Q3, a three-point increase over the same period last year. The combined ratio remained the same, at 88%, for the nine months ending in both Sept. 2007 and Sept. 2006, a Markel release noted.
For the nine months ended Sept. 30, diluted net income per share was US$31.28, up from $27.24 for the same period in 2006.
Despite challenging market conditions, we recently announced the opening of new offices in Sweden and Singapore, proving our commitment to profitable growth by offering our well established products in new markets, Andy Davies, finance director at Markel International, said in a statement.