Throughout 2008, insurers lost more capital than in any year in recent memory. Certain insurers are now scrambling to write business hoping that a light cat year + rebounding of asset prices might help them maintain market share.
Allstate: "Book value per share, excluding the impact of
unrealized net capital gains and losses on fixed income securities, declined to $30.08 as of December 31,
2008 from $34.25 as of September 30, 2008 and $38.11 as of December 31, 2007."
Too bad Gaap doesn't recognize this form of accounting because YoY BV is down 42%! 2008 was a cat heavy year, and Allstate managed to generate CR of 99, hard to see them doing better in 2009 as Reinsurance prices have started to firm while the economy continues to drag down prices for regular lines of insurance. Debt to Equity is now around 50%
Cincinnati Financial Corporation : Started 2008 with 5.9 billion dollars in shareholder equity, which adjusted for major losses from FITB, a core holding since the 50's that crashed with the rest of the banking stocks, to their credit they did sell the shares albeit after the crash. BV is down 29% YoY...UW was around 100 and should face considerable pressure from market prices.
Management like to give guidense on where they think the Combined Ratio will be next year... can't make this stuff up.
White Mountain: ADJBV/Share down 20% to 328 YoY, their assets are performing better than expected (ie I'm not sure why they didn't take more write downs, their mortgage backed securities must be better than average something), CR was at a respectable 95% for this cat heavy year. Of course BV consists in part of tax differed assets, MBS (Agency Backed and not) CBMS, and insurance recoverable which explains why Mr. Market is selling WTM at 65% of book.
Markel: BV per share down 16% to 222, CR was 99 in 2008,
Renaissance Re: Reinsurance prices are strengthening into 09, not that you can judge the strength of any risk taker over a period of months, but you have to look at their performance over a number of years. They've released 400 million dollars over the last 2 years from their reserves which is admirable but from a competitors stand point they've reduced capital by 400 million YoY, to their credit it was due to share buybacks.
Ace: The Greenberg Clan didn't get completely wiped out, Hank's son Even did must better with BV down 10% YoY, CR was at a very healthy 89.7 (these guys do all kinds of insurance including reinsurance health and life).
Chubb Re: 88.7% CR, BV unch YoY even after they bought back 1.3 billion dollars worth of stock.
Kingsway Financial: Haven't announced their numbers but based on projections BV is down about 70% YoY, the company has 350 million dollars of debt which probably exceeds BV at this point. Nobody likes to see a viable company die, hopefully they'll start selling non core assets and perhaps buy back any public debt they have at a discount.
Anyway I thought I'd get this started and hopefully we'll get a good list going as results come out
