MPI reports net income of $81.5 million for first three quarters of 2004

Manitoba Public Insurance (MPI) says for the first nine months ending November 30, 2004, it pulled in net income of $81.5 million, more than double the $38.7 million reported in the first nine months a year prior.
Premiums written were up over the same comparative period to $577.6 million from $526.7 million the year before. At the same time, claims costs fell to $458.9 million from $477.6 million. But expenses rose to $83.5 million from $78.5 million. Nonetheless, MPI pulled in a strong underwriting profit of $6.0 million in the first nine months of 2004, compared to an underwriting loss of $46.9 million the year before.
This helped offset a drop in investment income to $75.5 million from $85.6 million over the same comparative period.
For the three months ending November 30, 2004, MPI reported net income of $40.7 million, a dramatic swing from the net loss of $538,000 reported in the third quarter of 2003. Written premiums were up to $186.5 million from $169.3 million over the same comparative period, while claims costs dropped significantly to $152.9 million from $182.4 million. This helped MPI produce underwriting income of $3.9 million for the third quarter of 2004, compared an underwriting loss of $38.0 million a year earlier. Investment income dropped slightly over the same comparative period to $36.8 million from $37.4 million.
MPI vice president of corporate finance and CFO Barry Galenzoski says the strong results in the first three quarters of the fiscal year will help to offset expected higher losses in the fourth quarter. “This good news has to be tempered with the reality that we are heading into the final winter months, and as we’ve seen in the past, the weather can have a huge influence on the number of claims we pay out.”