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FAIRFIELD — Officials from Cincinnati Financial Corp. said today that preliminary data for the second quarter indicates improvement over the first quarter. They also plan to lower their stake in Fifth Third Bancorp.

Kenneth W. Stecher, president and chief executive officer of Cincinnati Financial and The Cincinnati Insurance Company, said new property casual business increased 22.8 percent in the second quarter, compared to a decline of 6.3 percent in the first quarter.

About $100 million in new business was brought in by the company's recent expansions of its agency force, operating territories and product lines. New second-quarter business in the comparable quarters of 2007 and 2006 was $81 million and $94 million, he said.

"We expect our net and operating earnings to move into the black for the second quarter and first six months of 2008," he said. "The first-quarter net loss largely reflected a non-cash charge to earnings as we lowered the carrying value of some investments. As we said in June, we are confident in the continued contribution of our solid insurance operations to our earnings, in our ability to sustain a strong capital position and in our board's intention to reward shareholders with cash dividends that rise year after year."

Although second-quarter results are cited to be an improvement over company expectations, Stecher said six-month net written premiums will be $1.566 billion, down 5.5 percent from last year's first half.

Stecher said Cincinnati Financial said the company will drop some of its Fifth Third stock, which cut its dividend from 44 cents to 15 cents per share. The cut will cost the insurer $19.5 million per quarter for the remainder of the year, as it owns 67.3 million shares.

"As we look to preserve our capital and protect future investment income, we may conclude it is in our best interest to sell more of our Fifth Third common stock holding," Stecher said.

A large number of catastrophe numbers due to the highest number of tornado and flood claims since 2002 in the Midwest has taken a chunk out of Cincinnati Financial's profits. The insurer has received about 4,000 claims from 18 states, raising their combined ratio to 104 percent from their goal of 96 percent, Stecher said.

Cincinnati Financial plans to report final second-quarter results during a conference call at 11 a.m. on Aug. 6. The call can be accesses on the company's Web site at www.cinfin.com/investors.

Contact this reporter at (513) 705-2843 or jheffner@coxohio.com.