Net income for Safeco fell to $149.5 million, or $1.65 per share, from $186.4 million, or $1.75, a year earlier. Excluding investments and merger costs, operating profit fell 17 percent to $144.6 million, or $1.60 per share.
Seattle-based Safeco used 94.0 percent of premium income for claims and expenses in the quarter, up from 89.7 percent a year earlier. Pretax catastrophe losses rose to $66.9 million from $6.7 million.
Shareholders of Safeco are scheduled to vote on the merger on July 29. Liberty Mutual agreed to pay $68.25 per share for Safeco, whose stock closed Monday at $65.72.