Aspen Insurance Holdings’ profits fell 76.1 percent weighed down by catastrophe losses during the third quarter and increased estimates from the first and second quarters.The company made a net income of $22.2 million or 23 cents per share for the quarter versus $92.8 million or $1.08 cents per share a year previous.That included $55 million or 75 cents per share of net losses resulting from the natural catastrophe events that occurred during the third quarter of 2011 and increases to loss estimates for the US severe weather-related events over in the second quarter and the Japan earthquake in the first quarter.Chris O’Kane, CEO of Aspen, said: “This was a quarter dominated by macroeconomic issues ranging from the US debt ceiling negotiations in Washington to concerns over European sovereign debt, the Eurozone and the future of the Euro.“In addition, 2011 has continued to be a year of exceptional frequency of catastrophe losses, which we now estimate at $95 billion of worldwide industry insured losses year to date.“Against this backdrop, we are pleased to have increased book value per share by just over two percent to $38.27 in the quarter. We also achieved an annualised operating return on equity of 8.4 percent, which we view as further evidence of the robustness of our diversified model and vindication of our measured appetite for underwriting risk.”Operating income was $56.5 million or 70 cents per share in the third quarter compared with $72 million or 79 cents per share for the same period last year.Diluted book value per share was $38.27 at September 30, 2011 compared to $38.22 at September 30, 2010.Underwriting profit was $26.7 million for the third quarter compared with $39.6 million for the equivalent period last year with both the insurance and reinsurance segments profitable.The company’s combined ratio was 96.7 percent compared with 94.4 percent for the third quarter of 2010.Prior year net reserve releases were $15.6 million in the third quarter compared with $6.2 million of net reserve strengthening in last year.Net earned premiums were $486.9 million in the third quarter, up 7.8 percent from the prior year.The underwriting loss for the first nine months of 2011 was $193.8 million versus an underwriting profit of $74.6 million in 2010.The combined ratio for the first nine months of 2011 was 116.1 percent, and included $406 million or 29 percentage points of net losses from the significant natural catastrophe losses that have occurred in 2011, compared with 97.2 percent for the same period in 2010, which included 10 percentage points of net losses from catastrophes.Prior year net reserve releases were $70.3 million in the first nine months of 2011 in contrast to $8.8 million of net reserve releases in the comparable period in 2010. The accident year loss ratio, excluding the impact of catastrophe losses, of 59.8 percent through the nine months, compared with 59.6 percent for the prior year period.For the nine months ended September 30, 2011, gross written premiums were $1.7 billion, up 5.1 percent from the prior year, principally in the insurance segment.