OneBeacon Insurance Group Ltd. boosted its profits by almost $10 million for this year's third quarter compared to 2006, mainly down to good returns on its investments and minimal catastrophe losses.

The firm, which is based in Hamilton and was founded and part owned by White Mountains Insurance Group, Ltd., recorded net income of $82.3 million in the third quarter of 2007 compared to $72.9 million for the same period last year.

It also yesterday reported adjusted book value per share of $18.85, an increase of 13.3 percent through nine months, 4.6 percent for the third quarter, and 20.4 percent for the 12 months ended on September 30, including dividends.

"We are very pleased with our strong third-quarter and year-to-date growth in book value," said OneBeacon chief executive officer Mike Miller. "OneBeacon experienced an excellent quarter by any measure in today's market, reflecting strong current accident year results, favorable development on prior accident years, minimal catastrophe losses and solid investment returns.

"Our 84 percent combined ratio for the quarter reflected good results from all of our businesses. In addition, it was positively impacted by the gain on the partial settlement of our pension liabilities and a state premium tax refund. Excluding these items, our combined ratio would have been 91 percent compared to 94 percent last year.

"Net written premiums were down less than one percent for the quarter and two percent through nine months, excluding the 2006 Agri business.

"Recently, we reduced our workforce by approximately 10 percent to bring our expenses more in line with our business needs.

"We will continue to focus on disciplined underwriting and manage expenses accordingly."

Through nine months of 2007, net written premiums totaled $1,437m compared to $1,526m through nine months of 2006. Excluding the Agri business that was sold in September 2006, net written premiums declined by 0.6 percent as compared to the third quarter of 2006 and by 1.6 percent for the first nine months of 2007.

Third quarter net written premiums grew by 12.5 percent in specialty lines (excluding Agri), and 3.5 percent in commercial lines, and decreased by 11.6 percent in personal lines, resulting from the continued shrink of the assigned-risk pools and the competitive marketplace.

Through nine months, specialty lines net written premiums increased by 20.8 percent over the prior year (excluding Agri), commercial lines premiums were up 1.5 percent, and personal lines decreased by 14.5 percent.