CINCINNATI, Aug. 16 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Cincinnati Financial
Corporation (Nasdaq: CINF) today announced that the board of directors has
declared a 35 1/2 cents per share regular quarterly cash dividend payable
October 15, 2007, to shareholders of record as of September 21, 2007. The
current dividend level reflects the 6.0 percent increase in the quarterly
dividend rate announced by the board in February. That action set the stage
for the 47th consecutive increase in the indicated annual cash dividend.
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer John J. Schiff, Jr., CPCU commented,
"The payment of dividends recognizes and rewards our loyal shareholders, who
support our emphasis on increasing shareholder value over the long term. Along
with the return of more than $180 million to shareholders in the form of share
repurchases since the beginning of 2006, cash dividends help stabilize the
return to shareholders. Our board and management look to provide shareholders
with a long-term total return - the combination of stock price appreciation
and dividends - that exceeds the return on the Standard & Poor's Composite
1500 Property Casualty Insurance Index."
Cincinnati Financial Corporation offers property and casualty insurance,
our main business, through The Cincinnati Insurance Company, The Cincinnati
Indemnity Company and The Cincinnati Casualty Company. The Cincinnati Life
Insurance Company markets life and disability income insurance and annuities.
CFC Investment Company offers commercial leasing and financing services.
CinFin Capital Management Company provides asset management services to
institutions, corporations and individuals.
This is our "Safe Harbor" statement under the Private Securities
Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Our business is subject to certain risks and
uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially from those
suggested by the forward-looking statements in this report. Some of those
risks and uncertainties are discussed in our 2006 Annual Report on Form 10-K,
Item 1A, Risk Factors, Page 20. Although we often review or update our
forward-looking statements when events warrant, we caution our readers that we
undertake no obligation to do so.
Factors that could cause or contribute to such differences include, but
are not limited to:
- Unusually high levels of catastrophe losses due to risk concentrations,
changes in weather patterns, environmental events, terrorism incidents
or other causes
- Increased frequency and/or severity of claims
- Inaccurate estimates or assumptions used for critical accounting
estimates
- Events or actions, including unauthorized intentional circumvention of
controls, that reduce the company's future ability to maintain
effective internal control over financial reporting under the Sarbanes-
Oxley Act of 2002
- Changing consumer buying habits and consolidation of independent
insurance agencies that could alter our competitive advantages
- Events or conditions that could weaken or harm the company's
relationships with its independent agencies and hamper opportunities to
add new agencies, resulting in limitations on the company's
opportunities for growth, such as:
- Downgrade of the company's financial strength ratings
- Concerns that doing business with the company is too difficult or
- Perceptions that the company's level of service, particularly
claims service, is no longer a distinguishing characteristic in
the marketplace
- Delays or inadequacies in the development, implementation, performance
and benefits of technology projects and enhancements
- Ability to obtain adequate reinsurance on acceptable terms, amount of
reinsurance purchased, financial strength of reinsurers and the
potential for non-payment or delay in payment by reinsurers
- Increased competition that could result in a significant reduction in
the company's premium growth rate
- Underwriting and pricing methods adopted by competitors that could
allow them to identify and flexibly price risks, which could decrease
our competitive advantages
- Personal lines pricing and loss trends that lead management to conclude
that this segment could not attain sustainable profitability, which
could prevent the capitalization of policy acquisition costs
- Actions of insurance departments, state attorneys general or other
regulatory agencies that:
- Restrict our ability to exit or reduce writings of unprofitable
coverages or lines of business
- Place the insurance industry under greater regulatory scrutiny or
result in new statutes, rules and regulations
- Increase our expenses
- Add assessments for guaranty funds, other insurance related
assessments or mandatory reinsurance arrangements; or that impair
our ability to recover such assessments through future surcharges
or other rate changes
- Limit our ability to set fair, adequate and reasonable rates
- Place us at a disadvantage in the marketplace or
- Restrict our ability to execute our business model, including the
way we compensate agents
- Sustained decline in overall stock market values negatively affecting
the company's equity portfolio and book value; in particular a
sustained decline in the market value of Fifth Third shares, a
significant equity holding
- Securities laws that could limit the manner and timing of our
investment transactions
- Recession or other economic conditions or regulatory, accounting or tax
changes resulting in lower demand for insurance products
- Events, such as the sub-prime mortgage lending crisis, that lead to a
significant decline in the value of a particular security or group of
securities and impairment of the asset(s)
- Prolonged low interest rate environment or other factors that limit the
company's ability to generate growth in investment income or interest-
rate fluctuations that result in declining values of fixed-maturity
investments
- Adverse outcomes from litigation or administrative proceedings
- Investment activities or market value fluctuations that trigger
restrictions applicable to the parent company under the Investment
Company Act of 1940
- Events, such as an epidemic, natural catastrophe, terrorism or
construction delays, that could hamper our ability to assemble our
workforce at our headquarters location
Further, the company's insurance businesses are subject to the effects of
changing social, economic and regulatory environments. Public and regulatory
initiatives have included efforts to adversely influence and restrict premium
rates, restrict the ability to cancel policies, impose underwriting standards
and expand overall regulation. The company also is subject to public and
regulatory initiatives that can affect the market value for its common stock,
such as recent measures affecting corporate financial reporting and
governance. The ultimate changes and eventual effects, if any, of these
initiatives are uncertain.
SOURCE Cincinnati Financial Corporation
CONTACT: Investors, Heather J. Wietzel, +1-513-870-2768,
Media, Joan O. Shevchik, +1-513-603-5323, both of
Cincinnati Financial Corporation/
Web site: http://www.cinfin.com /
(CINF)
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