Swiss Reinsurance hurt by subprime-mortgage market

Swiss Reinsurance Co. Friday reported an 87% drop in fourth-quarter net profit, as losses linked to the meltdown of the U.S. subprime-mortgage market marred otherwise strong operational results.
The world's largest reinsurer by premium volume, which warned of more subprime-linked write-downs for the first quarter of 2008 and said the market will remain tough this year, said net profit for quarter fell to 170 million Swiss francs ($161.9 million) from 1.3 billion Swiss francs a year-earlier.
Still, the figure beat analyst forecasts for a net loss of 50 million Swiss francs for Swiss Re, the worst-hit among European ...