Amwest’s 3rd-Quarter Profit Doubles From ’89

Amwest Insurance Group Inc., a Woodland Hills marketer of bail bonds and other surety bonds, said its third-quarter profit more than doubled from a year earlier, to $1.76 million from $729,000.

The higher earnings in the quarter that ended Sept. 30 were largely due to a onetime gain of $797,000 that stemmed from Amwest’s termination of a previously established reserve account. The reserve was set up in case Amwest had to pay rebates under Proposition 103, the insurance-reform initiative that is being debated in the courts.

In August, however, legislators exempted surety companies from major provisions of Proposition 103, enabling Amwest to close its reserve account.

Amwest’s first-quarter net premiums earned--an insurance industry gauge of total revenue--rose 25% to $12.1 million from $9.68 million. For the first nine months of 1990, Amwest’s profit jumped to $3.41 million from $2.31 million, and its net premiums earned rose 29% to $34.5 million from $26.8 million.