The Italian insurer Generali had to bear significantly higher losses from natural disasters in the first quarter.
Due to an expensive event in Portugal, the burden of 426 million euros was around nine times as high as the year before. However, increased premium income, the release of loss reserves and good business in life insurance made up for this. Operating profit increased significantly.
The Italians had broadly exceeded expectations, wrote industry expert Philip Kett from the analysis company Jefferies. His colleague Andrew Baker from Goldman Sachs attested to Generali’s consistently strong development in the first quarter. With their result, the Italians are likely to land at the upper end of their target range set for 2027.
In the first quarter, the group increased its premium income by almost seven percent year-on-year to around 28.2 billion euros. Operating profit rose by eight percent to 2.2 billion euros, as Generali announced in Trieste on Thursday. The surplus, however, fell by two percent to just under 1.2 billion euros.
In life insurance, the value of new business even increased by almost a fifth. The division’s operating profit grew by ten percent, while property and casualty insurance only generated one percent more.
The combined combined ratio deteriorated from 89.7 to 90.5 percent due to higher catastrophe losses, but remained well below the critical mark of 100 percent. Other insurers such as Allianz also had to shoulder high burdens in Portugal and Spain in the first quarter, where storm Kristin caused expensive damage.
Generali shares higher
Generali shares temporarily rose 1.68 percent to 38.20 euros in Milan on Thursday. In the previous week they had reached a record high of 39.51 euros after an annual increase of 10 percent. Shares of German competitor Allianz are a manageable 0.03 percent lower at 385.66 euros on XETRA.
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