Hartford Financial Services announced its profits plummeted thanks to losses from its auto insurance business just days after it announced it would be selling off its UK businesses.
The company’s net income fell from USD$216m from USD$413m a year earlier
Bloomberg reports. The personal lines business was where the company was hardest hit, with an operating loss posted of USD$55m. A year earlier the same division posted a profit of USD$42m. In a conference call, company president Doug Elliot said there was no hiding the company’s disappointment at its personal lines results.
As reported by
Insurance Business UK, Hartford this week announced it would be selling its UK asbestos-related liabilities to Catalina Holdings. The most recent results show that the book was a drag, as the company needed to allocate additional funds to its reserves in order to cover higher than expected legal costs.
Other results Hartford announced were an 18% decline in profits in its group benefits business and a 9% drop in contribution funds.
“The quarter was softer than expected across all of Hartford’s ongoing businesses,” said Ryan Tunis, an analyst at Credit Suisse Group AG, in a note to clients. The company posted the second biggest decline in the S&P 500 Index following the results.
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