Monday, property and casualty reinsurance company Greenlight Capital Re, Ltd. (GLRE) reported a loss in its fourth quarter, hurt by net investment loss.
For the fourth quarter, the company reported a net loss of $31.3 million or $0.87 per share, compared to a net income of $29.2 million or $0.80 per share in the year-ago quarter.
The recent quarter's gross written premiums fell to $28.6 million from $3.9 million in the prior year. Net earned premiums rose to $34.2 million from $21.4 million in the same period a year earlier.
In the quarter, the company posted net investment loss of $33.3 million, a loss of 5.3% on the investment portfolio, compared to net investment income of $26.9 million, a 4.2% gain, in the previous year.
For fiscal 2008, Greenlight Capital Re reported a net loss of $120.90 million or $3.36 per share, while a year ago had net income of $35.33 million or $1.15 per share.
Gross written premiums climbed to $162.4 million from $127.13 million in the prior year. Net earned premiums were $114.95 million, higher than $98.05 million in last year.
For the year, the company posted a net investment loss of $126.13 million, in comparison with a net investment income of $27.64 million last year.
David Einhorn, chairman of the board of directors of Greenlight Re, commented, "2008 presented a soft reinsurance market and a challenging investment environment. While we were disappointed with the investment result, our underwriting portfolio performed well. Our conservative balance sheet affords us a good opportunity to take advantage of the dislocations that are now occurring in a hardening reinsurance market and in the capital markets."
GLRE closed Monday's regular session at $13.03 down $0.09 or 0.69%, on a volume of 147K shares.
For comments and feedback: editorial@rttnews.com