View this article online: https://www.insurancejournal.com/news/east/2013/10/31/309967.htm
Donegal Group Inc. of Marietta, Penn., reported on Oct. 25 net income of $7.654 million for its 2013 third quarter, an 11.9 percent increase over $6.839 million net income reported a year ago.
Total net premiums written for the latest quarter were $136.630 million ($84.844 million for personal lines and $51.786 million for commercial lines) — up 5.7 percent from a year ago — reflecting continuing organic growth in commercial lines and the impact of premium rate increases.
The GAAP combined ratio for the latest quarter was 97.6 percent, improving from 99.6 percent last year.
The net investment income for the third quarter fell slightly to $4.624 million, down 1.9 percent from $4.715 million a year ago.
“During the third quarter of 2013, our insurance operations benefited from favorable insurance market conditions within our operating regions and a continuation of positive momentum in the achievement of our growth objectives,” CEO Donald H. Nikolaus said in a statement.
“Further, our GAAP and statutory combined ratios both were the best we have achieved for any quarter during the past five years.”
Nikolaus said Donegal Group continues to focus on expanding the commercial lines business, achieving solid new business growth and renewal premium increases in the 5-7 percent range.
“Our regional focus, independent agency relationships and proven commitment to the small to mid-size commercial insurance market are important advantages that contributed to a 93.0 percent statutory combined ratio for this business segment for the third quarter of 2013.”
Nikolaus said the absence of significant catastrophe weather events and fewer large fire losses in the third quarter enhanced the performance of Donegal’s personal lines insurance operations.
“However,” he said, “we believe our strategic underwriting initiatives were also an important factor in our achievement of a 97.9 percent statutory combined ratio for this business segment. Personal lines net written premium growth of 2.1 percent consisted almost entirely of rate increases we have implemented over the past year.”
“Our organic growth and profit improvement initiatives have been integral to our favorable underwriting results. We believe those initiatives will drive further improvement in future periods. In addition, we continue to pursue appropriate acquisition opportunities to add scale to our operations and to help us achieve our long-term performance objectives,” Nikolaus said.