S. Craig Lindner and Carl H. Lindner III, AFG’s Co-Chief Executive Officers, issued this statement: “We are very pleased with AFG’s performance during the third quarter. We achieved an annualized core operating return of over 17% in the quarter, with strong underwriting results despite elevated industry catastrophe losses. Strategic positioning of our investment portfolio enabled us to invest opportunistically, and the returns in our alternative investment portfolio again exceeded our expectations. Our thoughts and prayers remain with those who have been affected by the devastation caused by Hurricane Ian. Our P&C Group claims teams are working with our agents and policyholders to identify and process covered claims quickly and efficiently to help our customers recover and restore their businesses and rebuild their communities.
“AFG had approximately $1.3 billion of excess capital (including parent company cash and investments of approximately $760 million) at September 30, 2022. Returning capital to shareholders in the form of regular and special cash dividends and through opportunistic share repurchases is an important and effective component of our capital management strategy. In addition, our excess capital will be deployed into AFG’s core businesses as we identify potential for healthy, profitable organic growth, and opportunities to expand our specialty niche businesses through acquisitions and start-ups that meet our target return thresholds.”
Craig and Carl Lindner continued, “Based on the results reported in the first nine months of the year and expectations for the remainder of the year, we now expect AFG’s 2022 core net operating earnings to be in the range of $11.00 to $11.75 per share, narrowed from our previous range of $10.75 to $11.75 per share. In addition, our guidance contemplates the impact of the current interest rate environment on investment income and assumes an overall annual yield of 12% on alternative investments for the full year, based on the strong performance of this portfolio in the first nine months of 2022. Our guidance reflects minimal income from alternative investments in the fourth quarter of 2022 as management assumes that continued strong performance of multi-family housing investments will offset weaker performance of traditional private equity investments. Furthermore, our guidance continues to reflect an average crop year.”
AFG’s core earnings per share guidance excludes non-core items such as realized gains and losses and other significant items that are not able to be estimated with reasonable precision, or that may not be indicative of ongoing operations.
Specialty Property and Casualty Insurance Operations
The Specialty P&C insurance operations reported underwriting profit of $158 million in the 2022 third quarter, compared to $169 million in the 2021 third quarter, a 7% decrease. Higher year-over-year underwriting profit in our Specialty Casualty Group was more than offset by lower underwriting profit in our Property and Transportation and Specialty Financial Groups.
The third quarter 2022 combined ratio was a strong 91.1%, 2.1 points higher than the 89.0% reported in the comparable prior year period, and includes 2.5 points in catastrophe losses. By comparison, catastrophe losses in the third quarter of 2021 added 2.1 points to the combined ratio. Third quarter 2022 results included 3.1 points of favorable prior year reserve development, compared to 5.4 points in the third quarter of 2021.
Third quarter 2022 gross and net written premiums were up 19% and 15%, respectively, when compared to the third quarter of 2021, primarily due to growth in our crop insurance business. Year-over-year growth was reported within each of the Specialty P&C groups as a result of a combination of new business opportunities, increased exposures and a good renewal rate environment. Average renewal pricing across our P&C Group, excluding workers’ compensation, was up approximately 6% for the quarter, and up approximately 5% overall, in line with and slightly higher, respectively, compared to renewal increases reported in the prior quarter. With the exception of workers’ compensation, we are continuing to achieve renewal rate increases at or in excess of prospective loss ratio trends in the majority of our businesses.
Third Quarter Catastrophe Losses – Catastrophes, primarily due to Hurricane Ian, impacted AFG’s underwriting results for the third quarter of 2022 by $39 million, including the impact of reinstatement premiums and the favorable impact of the reduction in certain profitability-based commissions due to agents related to the catastrophe losses.
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