Tightening its underwriting to adjust for conditions in the reinsurance market, Munich Reinsurance Co. on Thursday reported profit of €790 million ($848.1 million) for the first quarter of 2015, a 15.6% decline from the same period a year ago.

However, the Munich-based insurer and reinsurer reported gross written premiums of €13.03 billion ($13.99 billion) for the first quarter, a 0.9% increase over the same period in 2014.

The combined ratio for the company's property/casualty reinsurance business was 92.3% for the quarter, compared with 86.9% in the same period of 2014. The company cited Windstorm Niklas, which struck Europe at the end of March, and Cyclone Pam, which devastated the island nation of Vanuatu in the middle of March, as major sources of claims.

Munich Re was also stung by difficult conditions in the financial markets as the reinsurer's investment income in the first quarter fell 8.6% to €1.82 billion ($1.95 billion).

Torsten Jeworrek, Munich Re's Reinsurance CEO said pressure on prices, terms and conditions remained high in the reinsurance market, especially in the U.S. natural catastrophe reinsurance market.

“In the nat cat business the rate pressure is pretty unchanged” with rate reductions of 10% to 15%, Mr. Jeworrek said during a conference call with analysts. “However, with really active portfolio management and discipline during renewals, we achieved in our portfolio a rate reduction of only 6%, so we beat the market.”

Nonetheless, he said the company was seeing slight changes in terms and conditions. “For U.S. windstorm, we have seen an increase in the hours clause up to 96 and 120 hours,” he said. “A few years ago it was 72 hours.”

Given the market conditions, Mr. Jeworrek said the company was focusing on cycle management and underwriting discipline.

“In the underlying portfolio we remained very disciplined but were very successful at concluding a few larger proportional transactions, which contributed to premium volume growth,” he said. “Without these extraordinary new transactions, we would have seen a small reduction in premium volume.”