Chubb grows premium 9.3% in Q1, nearly covering heightened cat losses

Chubb rode 9.3% growth in P&C premiums to nearly hold the line against rising cat losses and slowed reserve releases and keep Q1 P&C underwriting profits within 5.5% of the prior year mark.

Pre-tax catastrophe losses of $458 million were a notable 38% above the prior year tally, but moderate when taken against rivals publishing to date with cat losses over three times the prior year.

“Our P&C underwriting performance was simply excellent in what was an active quarter for natural catastrophes,” CEO Evan Greenberg (pictured) said of the results. An ex-cat current year loss ratio at 58.9% was down 0.4 points from the prior year reading.

The Q1 hit put cat losses at 5.1 percentage points (pps) of the 86.3% P&C combined ratio, up from 4.0 points in the year-prior reading.

Prior period reserve development at 2.2 pps was less favourable than in Q1 2022 to the tune of a full percentage point.

Counting out the cat losses, Chubb claimed a 7.2% increase in adjusted P&C underwriting income on current year events to $1.48 billion and said its adjusted 83.4% combined ratio was a new record, having inched down 0.1 points over the year. Counting those losses back in, the combined ratio is up 2.0 points to 86.3%, including a 2.1 pps increase in North America commercial and 10.4 pps in North America personal.

On the top lines, P&C net premiums written were up 9.3%, or 11.0% in constant dollars, led by 11.5% growth in commercial ahead of 9.4% in personal lines. Growth in North America measured 11.3%, but included a slowdown in NA commercial PO&C to 6.2%^.

Property and short-tail commercial rose 16.5% year on year, well ahead of 5.3% growth in commercial casualty, 2.5% growth in workers comp and the fractional retreat in financial lines. Personal homeowners is up 9.4% versus a fractional gain in personal auto. Reinsurance lines are up 9.4% or 10.4% in constant dollars.

On the Cigna Asia consolidation, income in the life segment doubled on a 124% increase in net written premium. That pushed the group consolidated NPW to a 16.6% year on year increase.

With record pre-tax net investment income of $1.11 billion, up 34.7%, in support, Chubb claimed an 11.8% gain in core operating income to $1.84 billion, a gain that could not be held by the group bottom line.

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