SJ,
In a CAT-heavy year, wouldn't those liabilities be paid out of the float. Yes, from an earning point of view, a billion paid out due to CAT events in a quarter would pass through the income statement and undo gains in the same quarter, with the net hitting the book value.
But from "cash usage" point of view, that $1 billion in liability payment comes from the conservatively run $38-39 billion float. Therefore, at corporate level in Toronto, the team should not be competing for resources, when it comes to capital allocation decisions, in a CAT heavy quarter. Fact is, as insurers, getting hit by liabilities is part of life, it is their cost-of-good-sold that just happen to come later and in a lumpier form, but it does always come in one form and another.
I think the {?} that might be coming would be the $10 USD jumbo-dividend in January. That is $278 million in Q1 of cash outflow, in a midst of a second wave, my guess they would keep it, but are probably feeling nervous about it. With an additional 482K of common stock added to his personal holding in July, I would think Prem needs the ~$4.8 million additional flow to his dividend stream as much as the next guy for his personal liquidity reason, but i also know that with so much of his wealth tied in, if he needs to take the axe to it to fortify the company's B/S, he will.
