The Hartford owns the land and buildings comprising its Hartford location and other properties within the greater Hartford, Connecticut area which total approximately 1.6 million square feet. The Hartford's international subsidiaries own approximately 203 thousand square feet of office space in the United Kingdom, 218 thousand square feet of office space in the Netherlands and 74 thousand square feet of office space in Spain. In addition, The Hartford leases approximately 4.9 million square feet throughout the United States and 204 thousand square feet in other countries.
1997 1996 1995 - ---------------------------------------------------------------- N. A. Property & Casualty $ 583 $ (151) $ 270 Life 306 24 150 International 110 127 126 Other Operations [1] 333 (99) (1) Allocated Distribution items -- -- 14 - ---------------------------------------------------------------- NET INCOME (LOSS) $ 1,332 $ (99) $ 559 - ---------------------------------------------------------------- [1] For 1997, includes a $368 equity gain resulting from the initial public offering of HLI.
Written premiums decreased 2% in 1997, compared to a 4% decrease in 1996. Premium growth in several markets and lines of business including Select Customer, Commercial Affinity, Bond, Marine and Agriculture, Specialty Property and Specialty Casualty totaled 6% in 1997, contributing 3% to Commercial's total premium growth rate. However, this total premium growth was more than offset by a 23% decline in large national accounts caused by declining workers' compensation rates and intense price competition. In 1996, the primary causes for the decrease from the prior year were intense price competition primarily in larger national accounts and a decline in workers' compensation premium from workers' compensation pools and a shift to large deductibles.
In 1997, revenues at ITT London & Edinburgh of $1.2 billion increased $169, or 16%, over 1996. In local currency, 1997 revenues grew 10% overall with 25% growth in net written premiums. The increase in revenues and net written premiums was primarily due to a new business agreement entered into at the end of 1996 with Nationwide Building Society. In 1997, the weakening of the U.S. dollar against the sterling resulted in a positive foreign exchange impact on revenues of $59.
During 1997, the Life segment continued its objective of managing exposure to securities that "underperform" in a falling interest rate environment. The segment continued to concentrate on reducing exposure to the collateralized mortgage obligations ("CMO") asset sector, and reallocated the funds into public and private corporate bonds, commercial MBS and other nonresidential ABS. In general, commercial MBS and other nonresidential ABS, although subject to prepayment risk, are significantly less sensitive to changes in interest rates as compared to CMO securities. At December 31, 1997, holdings in CMO securities were $978, or 5.7%, of total invested assets excluding policy loans compared to $2.2 billion, or 13.4%, at December 31, 1996 and $3.7 billion, or 22%, at December 31, 1995.
The Company analyzes interest rate risk using various models including multi-scenario cash flow projection models that forecast cash flows of the liabilities and their supporting investments, including derivative instruments.
The table below provides information as of December 31, 1997 on debt obligations and reflects principal cash flows and related weighted average interest rate by maturity year.
subsidiaries and to repay outstanding commercial paper and other short-term debt.