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Terra Assets, Stock Hit New Record Highs
Corte Madera, CA - Terra Insurance Company assets grew more than 12% in the first quarter of 2003, achieving a new record high of $39 million. Terra is a risk retention group that provides professional liability insurance (PLI) products to geoprofessional, environmental, and civil engineering firms. The company is owned by its insureds. The value of Terra stock also hit a new all-time high - its 61st consecutive quarterly record - of $159.40.
According to Terra CEO David L. J. Coduto, "Terra continues to produce net income and positive cash flow while competitors are reporting record operating losses." He said that he does not see the situation improving for other firms: "The period 2003 through 2006 will be challenging for the insurance industry. Years of poor underwriting and claim management, the September 11 attacks, and a weak economy helped create today's hard insurance cycle." Mr. Coduto attributes Terra's trend-bucking performance to "extraordinary loss prevention on the part of our owner/insureds, a conservative investment philosophy, and a management team that genuinely wants the owner/insureds to succeed."
Underscoring the quality of Terra's performance, Mr. Coduto also announced that A. M. Best Company, the insurance company rating organization, renewed Terra's A ("Excellent") rating. "A number of other insurance companies' ratings have been downgraded by Best," he said. Terra remains one of the nation's top-rated risk retention groups.
Perhaps the most significant endorsement of Terra's operations came from the owner/insureds themselves. Mr. Coduto announced that Terra "has renewed 100% of eligible policyholders for the 14th consecutive year." He said that only one eligible policyholder has left Terra in the past 15 years, "but the firm reapplied to Terra four years later and has remained a loyal owner/insured ever since."
Terra has some 90 owner/insureds. Their sizes, measured in gross fees per year, range from less than $1 million to more than $150 million. For more information, contact Terra Insurance Company, 2 Fifer Avenue/Suite 100, Corte Madera, CA 94925; tel. 1/800-872-0077 (in CA, 415/927-2901); e-mail terra@terrarrg.com.
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