NEW YORK (Bloomberg) — Shares of business insurer Ace Ltd. rose two percent yesterday after chief executive officer Evan Greenberg said the firm will grow amid an economic slowdown that is weakening rivals.

Ace climbed 87 cents, or XX percent, to $43.64 in New York Stock Exchange composite trading after earlier reaching $45.14. The insurer on Tuesday reported fourth-quarter operating profit of $1.87 a share, matching the estimate of 17 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg.

Greenberg is looking to pick up customers from ailing rivals after sidestepping the mortgage-related investments that led to losses last year at American International Group Inc. and XL Capital Ltd. Ace, which sells insurance and reinsurance, bucked an industry trend in December when Standard & Poor's said it may upgrade the insurer on the prospect that it can take business from competitors.

"We believe opportunity is growing as a result of the flight to quality to a company like Ace," Greenberg said in a conference call with analysts and investors yesterday. "We are continuing to invest in people and infrastructure to grow our presence in lines of business globally where we see an opportunity for Ace to grow share at reasonable terms."

Premiums from policies sold in the quarter rose eight percent to $3.05 billion, driven by growth in life insurance and reinsurance business and non-US accounts. Excluding fluctuations in currencies, policy sales rose 13 percent.

Ace has fallen about 26 percent in the past year, beating the 50 percent decline in the 175-member Bloomberg World Insurance Index. Investment losses are causing commercial insurers to pare back on price cuts that have been a constant in the US since 2004. Commercial insurance rates in the US fell 6.4 percent in the fourth quarter from the same period a year earlier, the smallest decline since 2006, according to a survey by the Council of Insurance Agents and Brokers.

"This is a nimble organisation and we can adjust rapidly to both threats and opportunities," Greenberg said on the conference call.

North American insurers have posted more than $125 billion in write-downs and credit losses tied to the collapse of the US housing market in the past two years. Ace's own investment losses totalled $1.2 billion in the quarter.

Ace's book value per share fell six percent in three months to $43.30 on the investment losses and "extreme" currency fluctuations, the insurer said.

Profit for all of 2008 fell 54 percent to $1.2 billion, or $3.53 a share. Excluding the investment losses, Ace earned $7.72 a share, beating its own full-year forecast from April of $7.40 to $7.90.

The insurer in December forecast operating profit for 2009 of $7.25 to $8.25 a share.