Greenlight profits on ‘go’

(CNS): Locally based reinsurer Greenlight Re has reported a net income of $92.2 million for the second quarter of 2009, compared with net income of $33.5 million for the same period in 2008. The net income per share on a fully diluted basis was $2.51 for the second quarter of 2009 compared to net income per share of $0.91 for the same period in 2008. Financial and operating highlights for the second quarter and six months ended June 30, 2009 include gross written premiums in the second quarter of $70 million compared to $25.4 million in 2008, while net earned premiums were $49.3 million compared to $24.7 million, respectively.

David Einhorn, Chairman of the Board of Directors explained that the firm’s underwriting portfolio continued its profitable growth in the second quarter of 2009 while the investment portfolio posted a good return in light of our conservative portfolio positioning. “While the insurance market has not hardened as quickly as we had hoped, our team continues to identify and select attractive underwriting opportunities while retaining our existing portfolio. We expect continued uncertainty in the economy, and believe we are uniquely positioned to take advantage of opportunities and dislocations in the market,” he added.

The net investment income in the second quarter was $88.3 million, a return of 13.9% on that portfolio compared to $31.0 million in the second quarter of 2008. For the first six months of 2009, net investment income was $116.0 million compared to $25.3 million during the comparable period in 2008.

Len Goldberg, Chief Executive Officer of Greenlight Re said that the firm had successfully turned things around since the beginning of the year.  “We continued to successfully build our underwriting portfolio and leverage our strategic partnerships while also benefiting from the reversal of the catastrophe loss we booked in the first quarter of 2009. Our growing team of reinsurance professionals continue to find new and differentiated ways to penetrate the market to find what we believe will be profitable opportunities,” he said Len Goldberg, Chief Executive Officer of Greenlight Re.

“While our investment portfolio has been conservatively positioned given the potential volatility in the markets, we were able to demonstrate significant outperformance in the second quarter of 2009. Our second quarter results underline our strategy to earn strong risk-adjusted returns on both sides of the balance sheet in order to drive long-term growth in book value per share,” Goldberg added.