Insurance company sees more than 15 per cent premiums growth

A London insurance company has today announced that it has improved its profitability.

SCOR, which specialises in property, casualty and life insurance, saw a gross written premiums growth of 15.8 per cent at constant exchange rates, to €7.1bn.

This was driven both by reinsurance, which grew by 16.2 per cent, and specialty insurance, which grew by 14.4 per cent.

However, SCOR estimated that the cost of natural catastrophes in Q4 2019 totalled €343m after retrocession and before tax.

Jean-Paul Conoscente, CEO of SCOR, commented: “As the reinsurance market did not fully react to loss perspectives as we had initially anticipated, SCOR maintains a disciplined underwriting approach as evidenced during the January 2020 renewals.

“Despite plentiful reinsurance capacity, persistently low interest rates and upward expected losses, SCOR significantly improves its P&C [property and casualty] profitability, while accompanying the growth of its key reinsurance clients.

“Thanks to its specialty insurance arm, SCOR leverages further the hardening witnessed in commercial lines, expected to continue throughout the year.

“Given that the January 2020 renewals are focused on EMEA with benign loss experience, we expect more pronounced favorable market conditions through the spring/summer 2020 renewals and maintain our “quantum leap” assumptions for the duration of the plan.”