Commercial Risk Partners' operating loss for the first quarter more than doubled to 21 million euros, parent company Scor reported on Friday.

Commercial Risk, which stopped underwriting in January, recorded a 9 million euro loss in the same quarter in 2001, and this year's poor result could put a sale of the business in jeopardy.

Scor chairman Denis Kessler told Reuters on Friday that the French insurer had signed a letter of intent with a third party to sell Commercial Risk and hoped to sell the unit by the end of June.

He refused to name the potential buyer because "we don't know yet if we will succeed." Commercial Risk's loss was "bad news" because it would cut the potential sale price, Mr. Kessler added.

The result offset an otherwise bright performance for Scor, which has been restructuring after its results and share price were battered last year.

Paris-based Scor, the world's eighth-largest reinsurer, earned 31 million euros ($35.5 million) in the quarter compared with 7 million a year earlier.