Maiden CEO 'pleased' to return to profit in Q2 and H1 2020

Bermuda-based re/insurer Maiden Holdings enjoyed a profitable quarter and first half of 2020, driven by investment gains and reduced operating expenses. The company reported losses for both corresponding periods in 2019.

Maiden reported a second quarter 2020 net profit of $9.2 million, compared to a net loss of $15.4 million reported in Q2 2019. Net profit for the first half of the year was $30.1 million, compared to a net loss of $52 million for the same period in 2019.

The gross written premiums were $4.9 million in Q2 2020, up from $2.1 million in the same period the previous year. For the first half of the year, gross written premiums were $16.7 million, compared to negative $559 million in H1 2019.

Lawrence Metz, Maiden’s president and co-chief executive officer, said: "We are pleased to report our second consecutive profitable quarter, during which loss experience continued to stabilize and we regained compliance with Nasdaq listing rules. As we increase our emphasis on asset and capital management, we are also remaining vigilant in managing our operating expenses to ensure that we are positioned for further increases in Maiden’s profitability. The impacts of COVID-19 pandemic on our operations have been immaterial as expected."

Patrick Haveron, Maiden’s co-chief executive officer and chief financial officer, added: "Our book value recovered sharply in the second quarter as we reported another profit and asset prices recovered quickly from the volatility experienced at the end of the first quarter due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Once again in the quarter we were able to capture realized investment gains in conjunction with expected settlement of our run-off insurance liabilities. While the ultimate loss development of our run-off portfolio still requires further maturity to fully emerge, the continuation of more recent stable loss development trends have been encouraging, although there is no guarantee these trends will persist.

"We are actively evaluating the strategic options available to us in order to deploy our assets and capital to further increase Maiden’s value to all shareholders."