Reinsurance giant Swiss Re posted mixed performance after the first nine months of the year. The creation of reserves announced a week ago affected the profitability of the Zurich group, while overall revenues stagnated.
Net profit stood at $2.19 billion, 11% lower than the $2.47 billion recorded between January and September 2023, according to indications provided Thursday by the world number two in the sector. Return on equity, a widely followed profitability indicator, reached 13.4%, compared to 25.9% previously.
Gross premium income remained unchanged at 33.71 billion. The division devoted to property reinsurance (P&C Re) generated revenues of 14.98 billion dollars – less than the 17.35 billion for the first nine months of 2023 – and generated a result of 603 million.
The negative development of this division is directly linked to the profit warning launched a week ago, respectively the constitution of 2.4 billion dollars in reserves for civil liability activities in the United States which weighed on the third quarter of Swiss Re. Over nine months, the group totaled 3.1 billion in provisions.
Between January and September, disaster-related reimbursements reached $813 million, including $743 million in the third quarter alone, the statement said. The damage is mainly linked to the bad weather that hit the Canadian city of Calgary and Storm Boris in Europe.
The ratio between premiums and collections (combined ratio) for P&C stood at 92.8%, improved by 1.5 percentage points year-on-year.
The life reinsurance activity (L&H Re) boosted performance, doubling its profit over one year to 1.2 billion dollars, for revenues of 12.56 billion (+7.6%). Mortality in the United States remained “slightly favorable”. Swiss Re deplores “negative developments” mainly in the Europe, Middle East and Africa (Emea) zone.
2025 objectives revealed in December
The smallest division, that devoted to business insurance (CorSo) experienced good growth and improved its profitability.
The insurer of insurers also provides details regarding the disengagement in Iptiq. This platform, which provides white label solutions, suffered a loss of $241 million over nine months, including $111 million in depreciation. Allianz Direct has acquired Iptiq’s P&C activities in Europe, as announced on November 5.
For the current financial year, management renews its forecast of annual profit in excess of $3 billion. Losses related to Hurricane Milton are expected to be less than $300 million and will affect fourth-quarter results.
Quoted in the press release, the new general manager Andreas Berger – in office since July – ensures that Swiss Re remains well positioned, particularly for the upcoming contract renewal round. 2025 targets will be announced in December.
This article was automatically published. Sources: ats/awp
