insurance giant ACE Ltd announced its first quarter earnings were up 13.5 percent.

The company said its better than expected operating profit came from underwriting profits in all of its businesses.

The company said first quarter operating profit, excluding one-time items, rose to $127 million, or 58 cents per share, from $111.8 million, or 57 cents per share, in the year-earlier quarter.

The results beat analysts' average forecast of 57 cents per share profit, according to First Call/Thomson Financial estimates.

Net profit, including $47.5 million in realised investment gains, rose to $174.5 million, or 80 cents per share, from $129 million, or 67 cents per share in the same quarter a year ago.

Brian Duperreault, chairman and chief executive officer of ACE said: "This is the first quarter that fully reflects all of the units that constitute what we call the `New ACE'.

"We are truly pleased to see how everything we worked for over this last year came together in the first quarter. We integrated our diverse operations, achieved significant premium growth, produced underwriting profits in every one of our business segments and completed the final portion of our permanent financing associated with the CIGNA P & C acquisition.'' First quarter net premiums written rose to $1.5 billion from $340.7 million in the year-earlier quarter.

Net income for the fiscal 2000 first quarter was $174.5 million or $0.80 per share compared with $129.0 million, or $0.65 per share, for the same quarter last year.

The company, which specialises in high-limit liability insurance, quadrupled its premium income last year with its $1.2 billion purchase of CIGNA Corp's property-casualty insurance unit. ACE Ltd.'s shares closed at $24.44 on the New York Stock Exchange yesterday, before the results were announced.

The shares have fallen about 30 percent from the 52-week high of $35.25 reached in May last year, as the company has suffered from low premium rates and high catastrophe losses.

Mr. Duperreault added: "With our global platform now solidly in place and our acceptance in the marketplace at an all-time high, we are very busy responding to the increased demand for our services. We feel we are in the right place at the right time and are focused on creating new opportunities to expand the services we offer to our worldwide client base.''