XL Group beat analysts’ expectations as the global business insurer posted third-quarter operating income of $122.5 million.

The Bermuda company saw catastrophe losses more than triple to $97.4 million, but still managed to generate earnings per share of 44 cents, beating the Wall Street consensus forecast of 37 cents.

The property and casualty combined ratio — the proportion of premium dollars spent on claims and expenses — improved to 93.1 per cent for the quarter compared to 95.3 per cent in the corresponding quarter of 2015.

XL operates under the XL Catlin banner, having acquired Catlin Group in a $4.2 billion deal in May 2015.

Integration costs related to the Catlin combination totalled $54.5 million in the third quarter, the company said.

“XL’s third-quarter 2016 financial results demonstrated steady progress in our underlying performance,” Mike McGavick, XL’s chief executive officer, said.

“We generated P&C underwriting profit of $167 million and our P&C accident-year, ex-catastrophe combined ratio of 91.3 per cent was a full 3.8 points better than the same quarter a year ago.

“Our clients, brokers and trading partners continued to show confidence in us as we maintain our underwriting discipline. This approach, combined with our recently announced planned realignment of our P&C operations, have us confident in our ability to further drive innovation and client service. We are committed to building on this improvement as the benefits of the combined XL Catlin platform become more visible.”

Annualised operating return on average common shareholders’ equity on a year-to-date basis excluding average unrealised gains and losses on investments was 4.2 per cent, or when integration costs are excluded, 6 per cent.

Net investment income for the quarter was $209.8 million, compared to $225.1 million in the prior-year quarter and $215.4

million in the second quarter of 2016.

XL said it spent $221.8 million buying back approximately 6.6 million shares during the third quarter.

At September 30, $594.1 million of common shares remained available for purchase under XL’s share buyback programme.