Swiss reinsurer Converium has posted its second quarter results, including the reserve strengthening the reinsurer announced last week.
For the second quarter of 2004, Converium posted an operating loss of $300.4m, with $384.7m due to the reserve strengthening. Converium said that it will be looking to raise capital of between $250m and $400m later in the year, when it has completed an external actuarial review of its reserve position.
Converium said it will also decrease its equity securities and reclassify certain OECD government bonds for available-for-sale to held-to-maturity, which, it said, will reduce its capital requirements for investment risks by up to $125m. At the same time, Converium is looking at "retrospective and prospective reinsurance solutions" to reduce its capital requirements by $50m to $100m.
The US reserve strengthening of $385m triggers impairments of deferred tax assets of $270m net and $94m in goodwill.
The net loss for the quarter came to $660m, with gross premiums written reaching $1.03bn. Overall, the non-life combined ratio for the quarter came to 140.5%, with a 43.3% impact from reserve strengthening.
For the first half of this year, Converium posted an operating loss of $223.2m, with $427.7m in reserve strengthening. The net loss for the first six months was $594.3m, with gross premiums written of $2.4bn.
