Sirius Group combined ratio rises to 123% on cat losses

Sirius Group’s combined ratio soared to 123 percent in the third quarter of 2019 as it became the latest reinsurer to report the high cost of natural catastrophes.

The ratio is up from 111 percent a year earlier. The increase in the combined ratio was driven by higher catastrophe losses in the global property segment and higher current accident year losses in the specialty & casualty segment. The company reported a comprehensive loss of $50 million for the third quarter of 2019, compared with a loss of $23 million for the third quarter of 2018.

Gross written premiums rose to $414 million, an increase of 4 percent. “Our 2019 results continued to benefit from strong investment performance, but our underwriting results came up short, primarily due to catastrophe losses, in the third quarter,” said Kip Oberting, President and Chief Executive Officer of Sirius Group. “Operationally, we are making progress. During the quarter we globalized our underwriting leadership creating a more unified organization. This organisational change helps us to more holistically and efficiently serve our clients across business lines and geographies, and drive underwriting portfolio enhancements.

“These changes also allow us to drive in operating improvements to facilitate future growth. Finally, in addition to growing in our reinsurance business organically, we continue to invest in the build out of our new specialty insurance lines.”

Chief Financial Officer, Ralph Salamone said: “We recorded $109 million of catastrophe losses in the third quarter, mainly from Hurricane Dorian and Typhoon Faxai. Our Dorian loss is consistent with an industry loss of $8.5 billion, and our Faxai loss implies an industry loss of around $9 billion.”

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