Despite his signature bearish outlook, V. Prem Watsa, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Fairfax Financial Holdings, told shareholders in his annual letter released Friday: “Fairfax had another excellent year in 2015.”
Watsa wrote in the letter of the year’s underwriting results, which “were the best in our 30-year history.” The year saw “record underwriting profit of $705 million and a record low combined ratio of 89.9%. We earned $568 million after tax ($23.15 per share) in 2015, thereby increasing common shareholders’ equity from $8.4 billion at December 31, 2014 to $9.0 billion.”
Among the best performing insurance companies were OdysseyRe with underwriting profit of $337 million and a combined ratio of 84.7%; and Zenith, with underwriting profit of $134 million and a combined ratio of 82.5%.
“As you can see from the table, all our major insurance companies again had combined ratios less than 100% with Zenith at 82.5%, OdysseyRe at 84.7%, Fairfax Asia at 87.9%,
Northbridge at 91.8%, Brit (which we acquired on June 5, 2015) at 94.9% and Crum & Forster at 97.7%.”
“We now have an extremely disciplined underwriting-focused insurance organization operating all over the world with a very entrepreneurial (i.e., decentralized) structure. I am very excited about the future of our insurance and reinsurance operations!”
