James River Group posts Q3 net loss
James River Group Holdings Ltd has reported a third-quarter net loss available to common shareholders of $7.2 million (2021 Q3: $23.9 million).
Net written premium grew 20.3 per cent due to increased net retention in the E&S segment; E&S renewal pricing increased 8.4 per cent, largely unchanged from the increase in renewal pricing of the same quarter last year.
Net catastrophe losses related to Hurricane Ian were $5 million, or 2.6 percentage points on the group loss ratio.
Net investment income increased 17.7 per cent sequentially compared with the second quarter of 2022.
Frank D'Orazio, the company’s chief executive officer, said: “During the third quarter of 2022, we continued to demonstrate our focus on disciplined underwriting and consistent performance, with all segments reporting an underwriting profit.
“E&S renewal rate increases remain strong and in excess of our view of loss trend.
“While we took proactive underwriting actions on discrete elements of our portfolio where renewal pricing did not meet our appetite, we continued to benefit from ample opportunities and robust market conditions overall as policy count grew by 7.3 per cent and we increased our net retention in E&S by ten percentage points.
“Additionally, our results validate our heightened focus on risk management and highlight the value of recent strategic actions as we had modest exposure to Hurricane Ian and benefited from the legacy commercial auto loss portfolio transfer that we executed last year.
“The results of these combined actions produced a very attractive adjusted net operating return on tangible common equity of 17.5 per cent in the quarter.”