Rising property prices are helping to resolve the legacy issues at lenders mortgage insurance company Genworth Australia and set the scene for a listing on the ASX.The company's profit levels, however, are rather thin for the leading supplier in a two-company oligopoly.Genworth said its underlying return on equity was 10.4 per cent in the year to December 2013. It expects this to decline to 10.2 per cent this year.The net profit last year was A$179 million. This should recover to $231 million this year.The main driver of the rise in statutory net profit will be lower claims.Net claims incurred are forecast to increase to $133 million from $128 million in 2013. Genworth said it expected its loss ratio to decline to 30.2 per cent from 32.1 per cent in 2013. The average claim payment is expected to decrease from $77,800 in 2013 to $72,000 in 2014. The insurer highlighted property price appreciation, low interest rates and shorter selling times as factors supporting the business.But it expects to concede market share over the next year as lenders make other arrangement to share the risk on mortgages with high loan to valuation ratios.Genworth said it expected new business levels in calendar 2014 to fall by two per cent to A$33.8 billion.Genworth released the financial data yesterday in connection with its preliminary marketing for a planned sale of up to 40 per cent of its Australian mortgage insurance business through an initial public offering. All the funds raised will be retained by its US owner and none reinvested in the Australian business.Fairfax Media reported that a US pension scheme had launched a case against Genwort, claiming that it misled investors about the Australian business when it attempted an IPO two years ago. The report quoted an unnamed analyst, who said the case would have "minimal impact" on the Australian IPO.