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GERMANY-INSURANCE-EARNINGS
Munich Re raises dividend on soaring profits
FRANKFURT AM MAIN, Feb 6, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – German reinsurance giant Munich
Re reported Wednesday net profits six times higher in 2018 than the year
before, offering shareholders a higher dividend despite a year marked by
natural disasters.
The Munich-based group, whose main business is cushioning other insurers
against risk, booked net profits of 2.3 billion euros ($2.6 billion) last
year — up from just 375 million in a catastrophe-plagued 2017.
Its result was slightly lower than forecast by analysts surveyed by
Factset.
“We increased our profit and achieved our result target — despite the
volatile capital markets and high losses from natural catastrophes in the
fourth quarter,” chief financial officer Christoph Jurecka said in a
statement.
Munich Re paid out around 440 million euros for losses in the devastating
wildfires that struck California in the autumn, and 430 million after Typhoon
Jebi struck Japan in September.
In total, the group paid out almost 1.3 billion euros for natural disaster
damage in 2018, with 2.2 billion overall reimbursements compared to 4.3
billion the previous year.
Elsewhere in the group’s results, gross premiums written — the equivalent
of revenue for an insurance firm — were close to flat year-on-year, at 49.1
billion euros.
Looking ahead to 2019, Munich Re said it had signed 10 billion euros of
new contracts on January 1, up from 9.4 billion euros that had been due for
renewal.
The group expects “that the market environment will improve in the next
round of renewals in April” as contracts in countries like Japan that
suffered most from last year’s disasters are rolled over.
Munich Re added that it plans to offer shareholders a dividend of 9.25
euros for last year, up from 8.60 for 2017.
BSS/AFP/HR/1425