RENAISSANCE RE IMPROVEMENT CONTINUES INTO Q2

Bermuda-based reinsurer Renaissance Re has continued its strong performance in the first quarter with further improvement in the second quarter. For H1 2012 the company booked a gain of $448.5m, up from a loss of $269.4m in H1 2011, on gross written premiums of $1.33bn, up from $1.25bn. In Q2 the net gain was $184.6m, up from $55.4m in Q2 2011, on GWP of $667.3m, up from $641.6m. The combined ratio for the half was 38.0%, down from 174.1% for H1 2012. For Q2 the combined ratio improved to 47.4% from 95.5%. CEO Neill Currie observed that RenRe's results benefited from relatively low catastrophe losses, solid investment returns and favourable reserve development. He added that "although property-catastrophe pricing at June 1 renewals was a little lower than we had anticipated, we are pleased with the results of the recent renewal season". The reinsurance segment generated $41.1m of favourable development on prior year reserves in the quarter, up from $19.2m in the same period last year. The favorable development within the catastrophe unit was primarily due to reductions in estimated ultimate losses on the Tohoku earthquake ($10.6m), the late 2011 Thailand floods ($3.9m), and $5.9m in actuarial assumption changes. This was partially offset by a $5.9m adverse development on the 2011 Christchurch earthquake.