PartnerRe reports increased net income in 2009 Q1

PartnerRe Ltd. (NYSE:PRE) has reported a net income of US$141.5 million in 2009 Q1, up from its 2008 Q1 income of US$129 million.
Commenting on the 2009 Q1 results, PartnerRe president and CEO Patrick Thiele said, “PartnerRe posted solid results for the first quarter 2009, with a 16.9% operating return on beginning equity and 2.5% growth in GAAP book value per share.”
The quarter was “relatively uneventful in terms of large losses,” the company added, resulting in a non-life combined ratio (COR) of 87%, down from the 2008 Q1 COR of 92.3%.
“The strengthening of the U.S. dollar impacted written and earned premium and net investment income growth, which would all have been positive if not for the impact of currency changes,” PartnerRe reported. “In addition, in a difficult capital markets environment, our invested assets posted a positive return of 0.5% in the quarter, in local currencies.”
The non-life segment reported net premiums written of US$1.1 billion in 2009 Q1, down from US$1.2 billion for the same period in 2008.
“Excluding the impact of foreign exchange, non-life net premiums written for the first quarter of 2009 would have been flat with the prior year period,” the company said.
The global (non-U.S.) property and casualty business, which represented 23% of total net premiums written for the quarter, reported net premiums written of US$299 million for the first quarter of 2009. This compared to US$373 million for the same period in 2008.
The technical ratio for this sub-segment was 73.9% in 2009 Q1, compared to 99.3% for the same period in 2008.