Zurich Insurance today posted a 74% jump in full-year net profit as its core general insurance rebounded from a traumatic 2015, helping the group confirm targets set by new chief executive Mario Greco.
The Swiss insurer increased net profit for the year to $3.211 billion, just short of the average estimate of $3.315 billion in a Reuters poll of 11 analysts.
Its fourth-quarter profit climbed to $685m.
A hit from winter storms to its core business, which sells services such as property and casualty insurance, as well as payouts from explosions at the Chinese port of Tianjin had contributed to a nearly half-billion loss in the last three months of 2015.
"We are on track to create a simpler structure, underpinned by smart investment and greater customer focus, that will ensure we are equipped to realise the group's full potential," Greco said in a statement.
"These results show what we can accomplish and are an excellent start to achieving our 2019 financial targets," he added.
In November, Greco upped the company's cost-cutting goals to generate net savings of $1.5 billion by 2019 compared to a 2015 basis while trimming the group's main profitability goal to a more achievable level.
The insurer proposed an unchanged dividend of 17 Swiss francs for the year.
Efforts to shape up underperforming general insurance helped nearly triple full-year business operating profit in the unit, as Zurich trimmed back unprofitable business and faced fewer losses from costly natural disasters.
Its combined ratio of 98.4% - a level below 100% indicates it took in more in premiums than it paid out in claims - marked a return to profitable underwriting after 103.6% in 2015.
