German insurance giant Allianz said today that natural catastrophes and losses on its investments in Greece slashed its bottom-line in half in 2011. Allianz reported a net profit of €2.545 billion last year, a drop of 49.6% from a year earlier.
The decline "was mainly due to very conservative writedowns of €1.9 billion from Greek sovereign debt and investments, particularly in financials," Allianz explained.
But at an operating level, the insurer insisted that it achieved its targets for 2011, "despite volatile financial markets and an unusually high level of natural catastrophes."
Operating profit fell by 4.6% to €7.866 billion and revenues were down 2.7% at €106.5 billion, the statement said.
"2011 was a tough year. But we maintained our stability throughout. That's an extraordinary achievement," said chief executive Michael Diekmann.
Looking ahead, "we are expecting similar global economic conditions in 2012 with a moderate improvement in the second half of the year," Diekmann said.
"The first steps to stabilise the eur ozone have already been implemented successfully. We are confident about our strong business opportunities in 2012," he said. Allianz was therefore raising its operating profit outlook to "€8.2 billion, plus or minus €0.5 billion," the chief executive said.
