Markel profit jumps on underwriting gains

Markel posted a 25 percent jump in second-quarter operating
profit as its international insurance segment swung to a $32mn
underwriting gain from a nearly $1mn loss a year earlier, as the
impact of 2016's Fort McMurray wildfires dropped out.
The company, which also announced today that it bought a
majority stake in an industrial farm for an estimated $255mn, said
its combined (re)insurance operations produced an underwriting
profit of $110.6mn.
This represented an increase of 74 percent on the s