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Munich Re profit flat for fourth quarter of 2015

Posted On: Mar. 16, 2016 12:00 AM CST

Munich Reinsurance Co. reported a €700 million ($780.6 million) profit for the fourth quarter of 2015, unchanged from the fourth quarter of 2014.

Gross written premiums for the quarter were €12.4 billion ($13.83 billion), up 3.3% from the prior-year quarter.

For full-year 2015, the Munich, Germany-based reinsurer reported profit of €3.1 billion ($3.46 billion) for 2015, down 3.1% from 2014. Munich Re reported gross written premiums of €50.4 billion ($56.20 billion) for 2015, a 3.8% increase over 2014.

Nikolaus von Bomhard, CEO of the Munich-based reinsurer, said in a statement that the result was pleasing given the “difficult market environment.”

Mr. von Bomhard earlier this week announced he would retire from Munich Re’s board of management and the CEO role next year.

Mr. Von Bomhard said that Munich Re was aiming for a profit of between €2.3 billion and €2.8 billion ($2.57 billion and $3.12 billion) for 2016.

“On account of continuing low interest rates and intensive competition in reinsurance, this is an ambitious target — especially because we cannot expect to see a repeat of the below-average expenditure for natural catastrophe claims that we had in 2015,” Mr. von Bomhard said in the statement.

Munich Re said its 2015 results had been affected by negative foreign exchange effects of €213 million ($237.5 million), as well as changes in the value of certain derivative financial instruments, other negative currency effects, and goodwill impairments in its primary ERGO Insurance Group business.

The reinsurer posted an investment result of €7.5 billion ($8.36 billion), a 6.3% decrease from 2014.

For reinsurance in 2015, Munich Re posted a profit of €3.3 billion ($3.68 billion), up 13.8% over 2014, and gross written premiums of €28.2 billion ($31.45 billion), a 5.2% increase.

For property/casualty reinsurance in 2015, Munich Re reported a profit of €2.9 billion ($3.23 billion), up 16.0% from 2014.

The reinsurer wrote gross premiums of €17.7 billion ($19.74 billion) of property/casualty reinsurance in 2015, up 6.0% from 2014.

It posted a combined ratio of 89.7% for property/casualty reinsurance in 2015, compared with 92.7% a year previously.