Ohio Casualty 1stQ Profit Down 26% From Year Ago

Ohio Casualty Corp. announced first-quarter net income of $19.9 million, or 33 cents per share, down 26 percent from $26.9 million, or 44 cents per share a year ago.

CEO Dan Carmichael blamed the results on catastrophe losses, poor workers’ compensation performance, and runoff of the company’s New Jersey personal auto business. Carmichael boasted, however, that several lines representing nearly half of the company’s premium revenue performed break-even or better in terms of underwriting profit.

Ohio Casualty, based in Fairfield, is the holding company of the Ohio Casualty Insurance Co., one of the ix property/casualty subsidiaries in the Ohio Casualty Group.

Consolidated before-tax net investment income for the first quarter of 2003 was $53.2 million compared with $50.9 million in the first quarter of 2002. During the first quarter of 2003, net investment income was positively impacted by a settlement of $1.25 million for the termination of an investment management agreement.

Consolidated before-tax realized investment gains amounted to $19.3 million for the quarter ended March 31, 2003. For the three months ended March 31, 2002, before-tax realized investment gains were $22.8 million. The Group continued to reduce its equity holdings in order to reduce the effect on statutory surplus of future stock market volatility.

Ohio Casualty ended the quarter with about $4.8 billion in assets.

Topics Profit Loss Ohio Casualty