The Trump tax cuts helped CNA Financial Corp.’s 2018 third quarter net income soar. Lower catastrophe losses also helped the bottom line, but investment income declined.

Net income for the Chicago-based insurer came in at $336 million for the quarter, or $1.23 per diluted share. That compares to $144 million, or $0.53 per diluted share the same period a year ago.

CNA said its 2018 results have benefited from the Trump Tax cuts, which reduced the U.S. Federal tax rate for most businesses from 35 percent to 21 percent. The insurer’s property/casualty combined ratio was 94.2, versus 103.7 in the 2017 third quarter.

There was no mention of tax cuts in CNA Chairman and CEO Dino Robusto’s prepared remarks.

“I am pleased with the third quarter’s strong core income of $1.17 per share, our best quarterly result since 2010,” Robusto said, who also noted the insurer’s P/C division success along with gains in long term care gross premium valuation.

CNA’s Q3 property/casualty gross written premiums were more than $1.58 billion, down slightly from just under $1.6 billion over the same period a year ago. The figure trends higher, however, over the first nine months of the year, with net written premiums at more than $5.16 billion, up from $4.9 billion over the comparable period in 2017.

Net investment income was $282 million, down from $308 million in Q3 2017. P/C catastrophe losses in Q3 were $46 million, down from $269 million in net catastrophe losses during the prior year quarter.

One trouble spot that remains is CNA’s international business, though it did show some signs of improvement. This division saw its combined ratio come in at 103.9, which is unhealthy, but better than the 125.9 combined ratio in the 2017 third quarter. Net written premiums were $196 million, down from $207 million in Q3 2017. For the first nine months of the year international net premiums written were $762 million, compared to $664 million over the same period in 2017.

Source: CNA