SCOR Q1 Net Tops $100 Million

France’s SCOR Group may be complaining about the recently negotiated WTC settlement (See related article in National), but it certainly isn’t complaining about the French reinsurer’s first quarter operating results. SCOR posted a 43 percent increase in net profits to €76 million ($102 million) for the period.

Other first quarter operating highlight were as follows:
— Gross written premiums: €1.04 billion [$1.4 billion], up 42 percent;
— Non-Life gross written premiums: €474 million [$636.7 million], up one percent;
— Life gross written premiums: €566 million [$760 million], up 114 percent;
— Operating income: €127 million [$170.6 million], up 27 percent;
— Shareholders’ equity at 31 March 2007: €2.314 billion [$3.108 billion, up 3 percent;
— Annualized return on weighted average equity (RoE): 14.0 percent (12.7 percent)
— Net combined ratio for Non-Life reinsurance: 97.7 percent (97.3 percent)

SCOR has successfully integrated the German life insurer Revios into its operations, and it’s on track with plans to merge its operations with Swiss-based reinsurer Converium, whose shareholders have finally accepted its share offer (See IJ web site May 10). It also managed to weather the effects of €28 million ($37.6 million) in claims from windstorm Kyrill.

The string of good news led Chairman and CEO Denis Kessler, who has largely been credited with the turn around, to remark that these “results demonstrate the pertinence of the Group’s strategic development, such as the successful integration of Revios business into SCOR Global Life on the Life reinsurance side, the application of a strict and underwriting policy in Non-Life reinsurance, and the repositioning of the Group towards the expanding European and Asian markets. The level of the net combined ratio shows that the Group is capable of absorbing a medium-level shock such as the Kyrill storms.”

The full report and additional information is available on the Group’s web site at: www.scor.com.