Although still losing money in its auto,...

Although still losing money in its auto, homeowners and commercial lines, Safeco Corp.’s first quarter property-casualty underwriting results showed improvement over a year ago, as did the company’s consolidated income from operations. According to Bruce Maines, president and chief executive, the first quarter property-casualty operations resulted in an underwriting loss of $21.1 million, down sharply from a $41.2-million loss reported for the comparable quarter a year ago. The realized gain from the sale of securities and other assets was $19.6 million, up from $5.97 million in 1985.