Holdings hard.

The company yesterday reported net income of $15.2 million or 58 cents per share for the first quarter ended March 31, a fall of 47 percent from the $28.8 million or $1.08 a share earned in the same period last year.

And the company also reported that a severe hail storm in Sydney, Australia on April 14 could hit IPC's bottom line in the current quarter. IPC estimated that claims on the company could add up to $15 million.

In the current quarter operating income, which excludes investment income, was $8.7 million or 33 cents per share compared to $26.2 million or 98 cents per share for the three months.

IPC president and chief executive officer attributed the fall in profit to competitive market conditions and high claims activities. He said premium rates continue to fall although the company believes the rate of decline is slowing.

"Accordingly, our results reflect this difficult market,'' he said.

"However, these are the sort of conditions which truly test underwriting discipline, and we believe that the fact that we have produced a combined ratio of less then 100 percent is evidence that it is being exercised by IPC.'' The company wrote gross premiums of $65.3 million in the quarter compared to $72.2 million in the first quarter last year.

"Written premiums were down because of rate reductions, retired lines where rates or terms were unsatisfactory and programme restructuring, all of which more than offset some new business and reinstatement premiums arising from claims activity,'' he stated.

The company had net premiums earned of $23.8 million for the quarter compared to $28.9 million last year. Investments brought in $7.4 million in net income during the quarter, about the same as last year.

The company has losses incurred of $16.8 million, four times those in the first quarter 1998. The losses were 70.5 percent of earned premiums. A steel mill explosion caused $6.3 million in losses. Claims from hail damage to crops, storms in Australia, Ireland, and through the US midwest affected the company.

At March 31 the company had total assets of $708.1 million, an increase of 10.1 percent over December 31. Total shareholders' equity was $564.7 million compared to $566 million at December 31. Book value per share was $21.57 compared to $21.32 at December 31.

IPC provides property catastrophe reinsurance. The company also writes some marine, aviation, property-per-risk excess and other short-tail property reinsurance.