We made significant progress in 2019, bringing us closer to making this vision a reality for the long term. We are encouraged by the progress that we’ve made in strengthening our portfolio, reducing volatility and growing the most profitable parts of our business.
In 2019, we continued to build on our presence in markets that are experiencing strong growth, including Lloyd’s, U.S. Excess & Surplus Lines and Professional Lines. In addition, we maintained leading positions in areas of emerging risk, such as Cyber and Renewable Energy; reduced our exposure in areas like Property Catastrophe and Weather; and exited underperforming parts of our business. Across the business, we have driven pricing increases, and we are optimistic that they will last through 2020, likely longer.
We completed the integration of the Novae acquisition in under two years. This has enhanced our leadership position in the London specialty insurance market, providing us with greater scale and increased relevance with our key partners in distribution. Finally, we have continued to make investments in our digital capabilities, enabling innovation and new business opportunities with our distribution partners.
Despite this progress in 2019, our financial results were impeded by a number of losses, particularly in Aviation and Property. Our results also reflected efforts to realign our portfolio and lower volatility by reducing premium writings in certain lines, such as Property, and exiting lines in London such as marine hull, management liability, power and product recall.
In 2019, gross premiums written decreased by $122 million, or 3.2%, primarily due to the portfolio repositioning noted above. Net premiums written decreased by $116 million or 5.0%. Ex-PGAAP underwriting income (loss)* in 2019 was $32 million versus $(44) million in 2018.
The ex-PGAAP combined ratio in 2019 was 98.7%. The current year ex-cat loss ratio in 2019 was 57.0% versus 58.5% in 2018, a decrease of 1.5 points.
In 2019, we invested in and grew businesses in which we have a differentiated value proposition and the potential to achieve profitable growth. As a result of our remediation efforts, we see growth opportunities across a significant portion of our business.
In our Cyber business, where AXIS has a leading position, we expanded our specialist team and established a Global Cyber and Technology practice to better serve the full breadth of our clients’ needs.
We also started building out our Small Specialty Commercial business, focused on serving the attractive small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) business customer segment.
We begin 2020 with a more balanced book, poised to benefit from the strongest market conditions seen in a decade and considerable growth momentum in several leading parts of our business.
Among the priorities for our Insurance business in 2020 are: continued investments in attractive markets where we have leadership positions, with a particular focus on Cyber and SME; further application of data and analytics to enhance underwriting and risk selection; and improved efficiency and productivity—all centered around driving profitable growth while delivering more value to our clients and partners in distribution.
* Ex-PGAAP underwriting income (loss) is a non-GAAP financial measure as defined by Item 10(e) of SEC Regulation S-K. The reconciliation to the most comparable GAAP financial measure, income (loss) before income taxes and interest in income (loss) of equity method investments and a discussion of the rationale for its presentation is included later in this report.