Liberty Mutual has reported its results for Q3 2023, revealing net income of US$219 million for the quarter and a net loss of US$441 million for the first nine months of the year.
"Solid underwriting results in our Global Risk Solutions business and the tailwind from rising net investment income helped offset continued pressure from inflation and severe weather impacting US personal lines,” said Liberty Mutual president and CEO Tim Sweeney.
“Despite these challenges, the underlying combined ratio in US Retail Markets improved 2.4 points and we continue to take aggressive rate and non-rate actions to return that business to target profitability.
“Global Risk Solutions continues to make progress toward its targets, with an improvement in the underlying combined ratio of 2.2 points compared to the prior year quarter.”
The carrier remains “focused on continuing to improve underwriting profitability to achieve a 95% target combined ratio," Sweeney said.
The Q3 2023 net income represents an improved result compared to its net loss of US$353 million for Q3 2022.
For the nine months ended September 30, 2023, the insurance group reported a net loss of $441 million, compared to a net loss of US$198 million for the same period the prior year.
The catastrophe loss impact for the first nine months of 2023 was US$4.5 billion, up from US$3.2 billion for the same period in 2022.
Liberty Mutual faced a net loss of $585 million in Q2 2023, which Sweeney said at the time was largely driven by “elevated” catastrophe losses, with widespread wind and hail events in Texas, Oklahoma, and Colorado having a particular impact.
The company booked US$66 million in restructuring costs for the first nine months of 2023.
Layoffs confirmed in October and not reflected in these results are expected to affect around 850 members of staff.
Liberty Mutual’s total net written premium (NWP) grew 2.6% in Q3 2023 compared to Q3 2022, at US$12.2 billion. For the first nine months of 2023, NWP grew 1.6% on the same period the prior year, at US$35.2 billion.
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