Restructuring leads to record earnings at St Paul

By Richard Banks, Hamilton

LAST year’s strategic restructuring helped St Paul achieve record third-quarter performance despite losses on exited business. The company yesterday revealed net profits for the period of $214m, up from $63m a year ago. Operating earnings increased to a record $233m from $121m in the 2002 third quarter. Net premiums written by St Paul’s ongoing insurance operations were up 24.5% on third-quarter 2002 at $1.89bn.