Bermudian reinsurer PartnerRe Ltd today reported a third-quarter net loss of $84 million, driven by $472 million in pre-tax catastrophe losses.

The company, which is owned by Italian investment firm Exor, benefited from $187 million of favourable reserve development, which softened the impact of the quarter’s storm and earthquake claims on PartnerRe’s bottom line.

Emmanuel Clarke, PartnerRe’s chief executive officer, said: “Despite the impact of these losses on the catastrophe-exposed lines in our portfolio, PartnerRe book value declined by only 0.9 per cent during the quarter, thanks to discipline in deploying capital in catastrophe-exposed classes, solid performance in our specialty portfolio, an improvement in our P & C non-cat accident year technical ratio compared to the third quarter of 2016 and good investments performance.

“These results highlight our underwriting discipline and the quality and diversification of our underwriting portfolio. We are approaching the January 1 renewals season with a strong capital position which will allow us to benefit from improving pricing conditions in the market.”

The non-life combined ratio — the proportion of premium dollars spent on claims and expenses — was 109.8 per cent, with the catastrophes representing 44.7 points and the release of prior years’ reserves benefiting the ratio by 17.7 points.

The company posted a total net investment return of $168 million, or 1 per cent, for the quarter, including net realised and unrealised investment gains of $61 million, net investment income of $98 million and interest in earnings of equity method investments of $9 million.

Total capital was $8.2 billion at September 30, 2017, up 2.7 per cent compared to $8 billion at the end of last year, primarily due to net income of $180 million for the first nine months of this year.