Investments pull down Liberty Mutual’s first-quarter profit

Liberty Mutual Holding Co. Inc. on Thursday reported first-quarter net income of $498 million, a 41.8% drop from the same period last year as declines in investments weighed on results.

Net written premium grew to $11.57 billion, up 11.2% compared with the year earlier period.

Net written premium in the insurer’s global retail markets business increased 12.3% to $7.69 billion and 11.1% to $3.95 billion for its global risk solutions business.

Catastrophe losses in the quarter were $656 million, compared with 1 billion in the first quarter of 2021.

Net investment income dropped 36.7% to $816 million.

David H. Long, Liberty Mutual’s chairman and CEO said in a statement that the company’s investment results reflected “more moderate returns in our limited partnership portfolio compared to the exceptional returns we experienced last year and $144 million of net realized losses resulting from recent market volatility.”