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Cincinnati Financial posts profit

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By Jessica Heffner, Staff Writer Updated 10:21 PM Thursday, October 29, 2009

FAIRFIELD — Cincinnati Financial Corp. returned to profitability in the third quarter as the insurance company reported a net income of $171 million compared to a loss of $19 million in the quarter before.

Operating income grew to $96 million in the third quarter, the highest it has risen since the first quarter of 2008, according to the company’s earnings report released Thursday, Oct. 29. However, income was far from in line with reports for the year-ago quarter, dropping 31 percent from the $247 million Cincinnati Financial reported in 2008.

Revenue dropped 2 percent to $1 billion from $1.19 billion in the 2008 quarter.

Kenneth Stecher, president and CEO of the company, said lower weather-related-catastrophe losses contributed to the increase and helped stabilize pricing.

The company increased its property casualty business by $14 million through new business in the third quarter.

“We are satisfied with third-quarter results relative to other recent quarters, recognizing that we still have work to do,” Stecher said. “We have good ratings and we are very consistent with our rates, we don’t bounce up in down, so I think there is a lot of business flowing our way just because of that.”

Net premiums written grew one-half percent to $730 million, reflecting lower costs for reinsurance and new business offsetting lower market pricing and the slow economy, according to company officials.

The insurer’s combined ratio improved to 95.1 percent from 101.3 percent in the 2008 quarter, as a ratio above 100 reflects more money being paid out to cover insured losses than is being collected through premiums. The improvement stemmed from an almost 90 percent drop in catastrophe losses. Cincinnati Financial paid out $6 million in claims last quarter, vastly different from the $63 million it had to shell out in 2008 for losses associated with Hurricane Ike and subsequent windstorms.

Contact this reporter at (513) 705-2843 or jheffner@coxohio.com.

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A great news I must say for the people of Cincinnati. I just hope it will be nationalized, an be the start of our nations regain.
Regards,
http://www.goldcoinsgain.com/gold-b...

Gold Bullion
9:59 AM, 11/3/2009

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Uh oh....obama and his mob will be making a visit to this evil, evil big business.

Silverback
7:22 AM, 10/30/2009

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Good for CFC. I hope they're getting all the business and profits they can from Liberty Mutual

rls2524
2:24 PM, 10/29/2009

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