PARIS (Bloomberg) ? Scor SA, the largest French reinsurer, had higher fourth-quarter profit as increased income from investments outweighed hurricane-related losses.

Net income rose to 48 million euros ($58 million) from 15 million euros in the year-earlier period, based on figures from company reports. The Paris-based company plans a dividend of 5 cents a share, it said in a statement today.

Reinsurers, which help insurers such as Axa SA spread the risk they assume for clients, were hurt by a record number of Atlantic storms last year. Hurricanes including Katrina, which flooded New Orleans, cut net income by 116 million euros in 2005, Scor said. Investment income rose by a third to 460 million euros in the year, helped by market gains, the company said.

?They were hit pretty hard by natural disasters last year, particularly in the fourth quarter,? said Clemence Bounaix, who helps oversee $4.5 billion in assets managed by Richelieu Finance in Paris. ?They?ve had robust numbers in spite of that.?

Scor shares rose as much as 4.2 percent, and ended the day in Paris 1 cent higher at 2.17 euros, valuing the reinsurer at 2.1 billion euros. So far this year the stock has gained 19 percent, compared with the 9.9 percent increase in the 31-member Bloomberg Europe 500 Insurance Index.

Scor?s full-year net income rose 75 percent to 131 million euros, or 14.8 cents a share, from 75 million euros, or 9.3 cents, a year earlier, the company said in a statement today. Bloomberg calculated fourth-quarter profit by subtracting nine- month figures from 2005 earnings.

Helping boost net income was the inclusion of a 43 million-euro provision for French taxes. Scor said it still hasn?t used its tax credits for losses incurred at its units Bermuda-based Commercial Risk Partners and Scor US.

Scor reported its first profit in four years in 2004 after chief executive Officer Denis Kessler trimmed costs and scaled back the amount of business written to focus on more profitable lines, such as life reinsurance. Scor is planning to cut as many as 220 jobs, or one-fifth of its workforce, by the end of 2007 to further reduce operating expenses.

?These results confirm the pertinence of the strategic choices made three years ago, notably the decision to follow a prudent and diverse underwriting policy centred on the markets and lines of business which the group knows well,? Kessler said in the statement.

Scor plans to consolidate its shares through a reverse stock split, converting ten existing shares into one new one.

Gross premiums fell six percent to 2.41 billion euros in 2005 from the year before. Operating income rose 22 percent to 242 million euros. Scor spent 106.5 cents on claims and costs for every 100 cents in premium income at its non-life reinsurance business last year, up from 101.8 cents in 2004.

Standard & Poor?s last August raised the company?s long-term credit and financial strength ratings one level to A-, amid optimism for its improved strategy and operating performance.