Arch Capital's earnings up 62% after United Guaranty acquisition

Arch Capital Group's 62% first-quarter earnings improvement was driven by its acquisition of United Guaranty Corp.

The Hamilton, Bermuda-based holding company had first-quarter net income of $241.9 million, compared with $149.3 million for the same period in 2016.

In the first quarter, the mortgage insurance segment had underwriting income of $148.9 million, a 439% increase over the $27.9 million earned one year ago. The UG acquisition was completed on Dec. 31, 2016.

Arch also offers property and casualty insurance lines. It segments those businesses in its earnings by primary and reinsurance. Underwriting income in the P&C primary segment declined by 66.7% to $10 million, while it declined by 6% to $55.4 million in the reinsurance segment.

Arch MI's new insurance written for the first quarter was $12.66 billion, an increase of about 20% over the combined total of $10.6 billion Arch and UG did on a pro forma basis.

On its own Arch did $1.8 billion in NIW for the first quarter last year. United Guaranty wrote $8.8 billion for the same period.