Oil Casualty Insurance Holds General Meeting
Oil Casualty Insurance, Ltd. [OCIL] held its Annual General Meeting of Shareholders on March 21, 2019 at the Princess Hotel in Hamilton, Bermuda. During the meeting, Shareholders were provided an update on the Company’s underwriting operations; reviewed and approved the 2018 annual financial statements; and elected Directors.
A spokesperson said, “The Company reported written premium of $239 million for year ended November 30, 2018, an increase of $22 million from the year prior. Results from Underwriting and Investments generated a net loss for 2018 fiscal year of $39 million principally driven by unrealized losses in the investment portfolio. Shareholders’ Equity stood at $507 million as of November 30, 2018.”
Bertil C. Olsson, President & CEO, noted that “an overabundance of capacity and a challenging investment market coupled with several loss events in 2018 resulted in a loss for the year. This broke OCIL’s string of seven consecutive years of net profits.
“With improved underwriting and investment conditions, we expect to return the Company to positive income this year. We can see that our diversification strategy has reaped benefits by balancing losses in our direct P&C operations with favorable underwriting profit in the assumed reinsurance division.”
Jerry Rivers, Sr. V.P. and Chief Operating Officer stated that “despite a slight underwriting loss of $6.3 million, OCIL grew the number of property insureds and assumed reinsurance treaties during the year at better terms than expiring.
“Further, OCIL did not renew the wildfire liability policies covering the major utilities in California during 2018. Therefore, we should not be materially impacted by the 2018 fires in California. We continue to see improvement in the operating environment and a strong interest in OCIL in both the direct and reinsurance markets”
Following the Annual General Meeting, the OCIL Board of Directors appointed Roberto Benzan, as Chair of the Board and Lars G. Ostebo, as Deputy Chair of the Board.
