Aspen Insurance Holdings’ first-quarter profit fell by more than 10 per cent as catastrophe losses increased.

The Bermudian-based insurer and reinsurer reported net income of $114.4 million, down from $128 million in the same period of 2015.

Operating earnings were $1.29 per share, down 10 cents from 2015, and just shy of the consensus forecast of $1.32 per share of analysts tracked by Yahoo Finance.

The company wrote more business in the first three months of the year, with gross premiums written rising 6.1 per cent to $957.7 million.

“Aspen has started the year well, with solid first-quarter underwriting results from our insurance and reinsurance businesses contributing to an annualised operating return on equity of 11.2 per cent and 4.8 per cent growth in diluted book value per share,” Chris O’Kane, Aspen’s chief executive officer, said.

“Our insurance teams are successfully executing our global products line strategy and delivered growth in targeted lines of business. At the same time, we continued to pull back from areas where we do not feel returns are adequate or are historically more volatile.

“Within Aspen Re, our teams had successful January and April renewals, again demonstrating our ability to maintain relevance with clients while navigating a challenging and changing market.

“We also welcomed our colleagues from AgriLogic. In addition, we continue to move closer to our clients, recently announcing the opening of our Dubai office to serve as our hub for the Middle East and Africa.”

Aspen’s combined ratio — the proportion of premium dollars allocated to claims and expenses — of 91.6 per cent for the first quarter compared with 88.9 per cent for the first quarter of 2015.

The company said pre-tax catastrophe losses, net of reinsurance recoveries, totalled $18.7 million during the January through March period, compared to $13.5 million in 2015. Most of these losses were caused by weather-related events in the US and an earthquake in Taiwan.

Net favourable development on prior-year loss reserves of $21.6 million for the first quarter of 2016 compared with $27.5 million a year earlier.

Investment income increased by 4.4 per cent to $49.5 million. The total return on Aspen’s aggregate investment portfolio was 2.08 per cent for the quarter.