Earnings

Earnings decline in the international non-life business of the Japanese carrier.

The firm returns to the black at underwriting level with a combined ratio of 95.8 percent.

Group profits slip back due to cat loss reserve strengthening.

The Toronto-based firm reported net earnings of $24.62 per share, beating consensus by a wide margin.

The insurer said it had shaved about 7 percent off overall reinsurance costs.

The carrier cut gross limits for the class of business by $40bn during the quarter.

Arch’s management team described the market as transitioning, and was reluctant to characterize current conditions as a “hard market”.

Key themes from the Q4 call were additional detail on the recently announced reserve charge, market conditions, buybacks, and the purchase of French insurer Axeria.

Interim CEO Kevin Rehnberg begins his tenure in time-honored tradition when taking over a P&C company at a “challenging” time: reserve charges, impairment charges and higher loss picks.

Interim CEO Kevin Rehnberg said the results were “clearly unacceptable”.

The carrier is seeing increasing submission levels and “much improved pricing” in facultative reinsurance.

Everest echoed our skepticism from Monday about social inflation versus long-term mean reversion for loss trends on its Q4 earnings call.