Liberty Mutual Absorbs $800 Million in Catastrophe Losses in Q3

November 11, 2008

Quarterly profits nosedived by nearly 99 percent at Boston-based Liberty Mutual group, which saw its third quarter earnings fall to $6 million – down from $404 million in the same quarter last year.

“Given the circumstances, we are pleased with our results in the third quarter,” said Edmund F. Kelly, chairman, president and chief executive officer of Liberty Mutual Group. “We absorbed over $800 million of pre-tax natural catastrophe losses and approximately $250 million of pre-tax investment losses and still reported positive, albeit slightly (lower), results in the quarter. The fundamental strength of our business has never been more apparent.”

Net written premium for the quarter, which ended September 30, was $6.5 billion, an increase of $751 million, or 13 percent, over the year-ago period.

Quarterly revenues at Liberty Mutual climbed $282 million, or 4.3 percent, to nearly $6.9 billion.

Third quarter results for Liberty Mutual also include the results of the operations of Safeco Corp., which Liberty Mutual Group acquired for $6.2 billion as of Sept. 22. Safeco is now part of the Liberty Mutual Agency Markets.

Topics Catastrophe Profit Loss

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Latest Comments

  • November 15, 2008 at 3:24 am
    HUH ?? says:
    IF "rates" continue to drop? Are you kidding? I'm in the Midwest - the Land of Indiana.... and these whores stopped underwriting a looooooong time ago. I was looking at ... read more
  • November 12, 2008 at 6:08 am
    Good Hands says:
    "...and still reported positive, albeit slightly (lower), results in the quarter." Let's see, $6 million is about 1 1/5% of $404 million. Yeah, I'd say that is just "slightly ... read more
  • November 12, 2008 at 2:44 am
    nobody important says:
    Even mutual company information is public through the various insurance departments. Although they don't have stockholders they still have a lot of information public from th... read more

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