ING Canada Inc. swung to a first-quarter loss as weak equity markets led to investment losses, the property and casualty insurer said Wednesday.

Net loss was $36.3 million, or 30¢ a share, in the three months ended March 31. That compares to a profit of $23 million, or 19¢ a share, in the same period a year earlier.

On a net operating basis, it earned 58¢ a share, an increase of 3.6% from last year.

ING Canada, the country’s biggest P&C insurer, said underwriting income for the period rose to $7.9 million.

Return on equity for the quarter ended March 31 was 2.4%, down from 13%, a year earlier.

The combined ratio, which measures how much was spent on claims and expenses as a percentage of premiums earned, fell 0.7 points to 99.2%.

“Our operating performance continued to be healthy during the quarter driven by good underwriting results. All our business lines performed well in the current environment except our home insurance business. We are focused on improving our home insurance results through a robust action plan,” stated Charles Brindamour, president and CEO.

“During the quarter, we continued our efforts to protect our strong excess capital position by launching a hedging program that significantly reduced our exposure to the fluctuations of the market values of common shares of financial institutions.”

ING Canada was spun off by its Dutch parent earlier in February.

The company is scheduled to hold its annual general meeting Wednesday in Toronto. At the meeting, shareholders will be asked to approve among other things a resolution authorizing the change of the name of the company to Intact Financial Corp.

IE