AXIS Reports First Quarter Income Of $5M
Bermuda-based AXIS Capital Holdings Limited reported net income available to common shareholders for the first quarter of 2017 of $5 million, or $0.06 per diluted common share, compared to $38 million, or $0.41 per diluted common share, for the first quarter of 2016.
Albert Benchimol, President and CEO of AXIS Capital, said: “Notwithstanding the pressure from a number of unusual and one-time items in the quarter, we are pleased to report that, adjusted for dividends, diluted book value per common share increased by $1.00, or 2%, per common share for the quarter.
“The special items that impacted our operating income for the quarter include the impact of the Ogden rate change in the U.K., executive severance and retirement costs, and an impairment of an equity-method investment. In addition, we experienced high catastrophe and weather-related losses for the quarter, which were in line with higher industry losses.”
Mr. Benchimol added: “Even against the backdrop of a challenging global P&C marketplace, we continue to demonstrate improvements in our insurance accident year loss ratio excluding catastrophe and weather, and benefits from our strategic capital partnering activities which allow us to do more for clients, lower our cost of capital, and attractively rebalance the risk-reward equation for our shareholders.
“Our underlying underwriting results demonstrate the strength of our various underwriting and risk management initiatives, good progress in our targeted growth initiatives and continued positive momentum in our strategic capital partnering activities.”
