Munich Re, Hannover Re report Q1 profit

Munich Re reported first-quarter 2018 profit of €827.0 million ($982.4 million), up 48.5% from €557 million compared with Q1 2017, the reinsurer said in a statement Tuesday.

The German company issued yearly profit guidance of €2.10 billion ($2.49 billion) to €2.50 billion ($2.97 billion).  

Gross premiums written increased 1.6% to €1.31 billion from €1.29 billion a year ago, the statement said.

The property/casualty combined ratio was 88.6% for the quarter on benign major losses, the statement said.

Reinsurance operations accounted for €750 million of the company’s earnings, the statement said. Gross premiums written increased 1.7% to €8.18 billion from €8.05 billion a year ago.

Property-casualty reinsurance contributed €591 million to the consolidated result for the first quarter as premium volume rose to €5.32 billion from €4.56 billion on organic growth, the statement said.

Renewals at April 1 showed a small increase of 0.8% in pricing. “In the renewals at 1 April 2018, the trend that had begun to be observed in January continued, with prices increasing in the markets affected by natural catastrophes, but otherwise remaining stable given the still-high capacity levels in the markets,” Munich Re said in its earnings statement.

The German reinsurer also issued improved guidance for its full-year property/casualty reinsurance combined ratio as well as reiterating previous profit guidance

“In property/casualty reinsurance, Munich Re has lowered the projected combined ratio for the full year by two percentage points to 97% on account of low major-loss expenditure in the first quarter of 2018,” the statement said.

For the full year, “Munich Re is still expecting to post gross premiums written of €46-49 billion for 2018,  and is not changing its forecast consolidated result in the range of €2.1-2.5 billion.”

Meanwhile, Hannover Re had group net income of €273.4 million, up 3.3% from €264.8 million a year ago.

Gross premium written rose 17.6% to €5.34 billion from €4.55 billion a year ago.

Investment income declined 0.4% to €391.5 million from €392.9 million a year ago and the property/casualty combined ratio worsened to 95.9% for the quarter from 95.6% a year ago.