AIG revenue beats estimates on normal insurance coverage power

The AIG emblem is seen at its constructing in New York’s monetary district March 19, 2015. REUTERS/Brendan McDermid

Feb 16 (Reuters) – U.S. insurer American Worldwide Group Inc (AIG.N) topped fourth-quarter revenue expectations on Wednesday because it benefited from robust underwriting and decrease disaster losses at its normal insurance coverage enterprise.

Disaster losses got here in at simply $189 million within the quarter to Dec. 31 and primarily stemmed from tornadoes in southern U.S. states and wildfires. The year-ago determine was $545 million, together with $178 million in estimated COVID-19 losses.

AIG and its international friends have been inundated with COVID-related claims since begin of the pandemic in 2020, however the strain has began easing in current months as a result of wider availability of vaccines.

The drop in catastrophe-related claims helped AIG’s normal insurance coverage enterprise publish an underwriting revenue of $499 million, in contrast with an underwriting lack of $171 million a yr earlier.

Gross premiums written for the final insurance coverage enterprise rose 12% to greater than $8 billion.

The corporate’s adjusted after-tax revenue attributable to its frequent shareholder soared 57% to $1.3 billion. It earned $1.58 on a per-share foundation, trouncing analysts’ common estimate of $1.19 per share, in keeping with IBES knowledge from Refinitiv.

The final insurance coverage accident yr mixed ratio was 89.8, an enchancment of three.1 factors from a yr earlier. The metric excludes disaster losses and a ratio under 100 signifies that the insurer earns extra from premiums than it pays out in claims.

AIG’s life and retirement unit, its different massive supply of revenue, posted a 6% decline in adjusted pre-tax revenue to $969 million.

The corporate stated it had made vital progress in its plans to separate the life and retirement unit. AIG had bought a 9.9% fairness stake within the unit to Blackstone Inc (BX.N) for $2.2 billion in July final yr.

Reporting by Sohini Podder and Noor Zainab Hussain in Bengaluru; Modifying by Aditya Soni

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