Damaging spring storms across the U.S. drove insurer Travelers Cos. Inc. to its first loss in seven years.
The New York insurer with major operations in Hartford lost $364 million, or 88 cents a share, in the three months ended June 30.
That contrasts with $690 million, or $1.39 a share, earned the same quarter last year.
Travelers had previously indicated the earnings news would not be good after record spring tornadoes and hailstorms tore through the South and the nation’s mid-section, claiming hundreds of lives and causing billions in damages.
“Our second quarter loss was due to the extraordinary tornadoes and hail storms that caused devastation across significant portions of the United States,” Chairman and CEO Jay Fishman said. “To put this in perspective, these losses for us were larger than those we incurred from Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and the equivalent of losses we would expect from a 1-in-100 year hurricane.
Beyond the bad storm news, Fishman pointed to the good word in the quarter from continued firming of pricing on its commercial insurance lines, especially business insurance.
“We were also encouraged that audit premiums, which turned positive in the first quarter, continued to increase,” he said. “In personal insurance the production and pricing trends remained generally consistent with first quarter trends.
