SCOR reports 17% rise in net income despite catastrophes losses

SCOR, the world’s fourth-biggest reinsurer, saw its shares rose 3 percent after reporting an increase in net income for the first nine months of the year.

The result was in spite of a third quarter marked by a series of natural catastrophes and man-made losses. Group net income rose to € 401 million in the first nine months of 2019, up 17.3 percent on the same period last year.

SCOR Global P&C saw strong growth of 11.5percent at constant exchange rates, with gross written premiums (GPW) reaching €5.26 billion. The net combined ratio was “robust” at 95.7 percent and includes: a nat cat impact of 12 percent in the third quarter, mainly coming from Hurricane Dorian, accounting for €92 million net of retrocession, and Typhoon Faxai, €89 million net of retrocession. The net combined ratio for the third quarter was 99.4 percent. The year-to-date cat ratio was 7.6 percent.

In the third quarter, SCOR Global Life’s gross written premiums stand at € 6.79 billion, down 2.5 percent at constant exchange rates. It said the variation was largely driven by the renewal of certain financial solutions transactions as fee business, rather than premiums, since the beginning of the year. Excluding these transactions, GPW would have grown by 3.8 percent at constant exchange rates, driven by franchise development in Asia and North America.

In total, GPW were €12.06 billion in the first nine months of 2019, up 3.2% at constant exchange rates.

Denis Kessler, chairman & chief executive of SCOR, said: “SCOR records a solid performance in the first nine months of 2019, achieving its solvency target and outperforming its profitability target of its new strategic plan “Quantum Leap”. SCOR demonstrates once again its capacity to successfully combine profitability and solvency, in spite of challenging conditions that the industry faced in the third quarter of 2019, marked by a series of natural catastrophes and man-made P&C claims, combined with historically low levels of interest rates.

“The Group continues to expand and deepen its franchise both on U.S. P&C, the largest market in the world, and on life reinsurance in AsiaPacific.”

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