LONDON (Bloomberg) - XL Group plc., a US property and casualty insurer, said it's seeking "mid-single-digit" percentage growth in premiums this year as it wins back customers lost during the global financial crisis.

"This is not a market to grow in with pricing like it is, but we do have a couple of phenomena that are working in our favour," CEO Mike McGavick said in a September 13 interview in Monte Carlo. "The return of long-standing clients to fuller shares of their programs" will help raise premium volumes in 2010 compared with last year, he said.

XL was abandoned by some clients after the firm lost more than $3 billion in the second half of 2008 as investments tied to subprime mortgages tumbled and its bond guarantor unit had to be rescued. McGavick joined the insurer in May 2008 and has sought to win back customers after winding down the company's riskier assets and replacing them with government bonds.

The growth forecast would beat the company's recent The growth forecast would beat the company's recentperformances. Gross written premiums climbed 0.4 percent in the second quarter compared with the same period a year earlier. They rose 1.1 percent in the first quarter.

The stock climbed 22 cents, or 1.1 percent, to $20.56 at 10:18 a.m. in New York trading, valuing the firm at about $7 billion.

Premium rates will probably be "flat to slightly down" in January, when the majority of reinsurance policies come up for renewal, Mr. McGavick said.

XL will focus on selling insurance to directors and officers and to the energy industry, areas where prices haven't fallen as much as in other lines, he said.

US property and casualty premium rates have dropped to their lowest in 10 years, according to the Council of Insurance Agents and Brokers, as the highest levels of reserves held by insurers on record prompt firms to compete for business.

Reinsurance companies including XL, Munich Re, and Swiss Reinsurance Co. met in Monte Carlo this month to discuss rates for January 2011, when most reinsurance policies are renewed.

XL plunged to $2.67 between July 2007 and February 2009 as its bond guarantor, Syncora Holdings Ltd., formerly named Security Capital Assurance Ltd., faced a wave of claims related to collateralised debt obligations it insured declining in value.

XL subsequently sold $2.8 billion in stock, some of which funded the rescue.

"If you dropped a bottle and broke it and were picking up all the big pieces, we're now sweeping off the little splinters," Mr. McGavick said.

"The special advantage for XL is because of the difficulties we went through we have been a bit more undervalued than some others. That presents a special opportunity."