Generali has posted a rise in first-half operating profit thanks to its life and wealth management businesses, while its non-life segment suffered a rising impact from natural disasters, Italy's top insurer said today.
First-half operating income, the profit measure most closely watched by the market, rose 1.6% year-on-year to €3.72 billion, broadly in line with a company-provided consensus.
The insurer's life and wealth management segments made key contributions with annual gains, respectively, of 7.8% and 19.4% in operating profit.
This offset the headwinds faced by the non-life segment, which saw a 6.7% yearly operating profit drop due to the increased costs of natural catastrophe and reduced discounting benefits, an accounting provision relating to the discounting of probable outgoing cash flows.
The non-life combined ratio, a measure of underwriting performance in which a level below 100 indicates a profit, rose to 92.4% due to a higher impact of natural catastrophes and a lower benefit from discounting, the company said.
The undiscounted ratio improved to 94.9%, while the undiscounted loss ratio for the current year fell to 66.4%.
Chief executive Philippe Donnet said in a statement that Generali was "fully on track" to meet all the "ambitious" targets of its strategic plan until 2024, including an annual growth rate in earnings per share of between 6% and 8% in 2022-2024 and cumulative dividends of up to €5.6 billion.
Generali said it would unveil its new strategy in Venice on January 30.
