Allianz P&C profits slide 26.5%

Allianz Group announced a Q1 operating profit up 20.4% to €1.7bn, with revenues up 10.3% to €30.6bn but warned natural catastrophe claims of €555m hurt its property-casualty division forcing operating profit down 26.5% to €712m.

A combination of tariff increases, portfolio cleaning and selective underwriting in the P&C business resulted in gross premiums written rising just 0.8% to €14.0bn (€13.9bn Q1 2009)

The combined ratio rose to 100.4%, compared to 98.7% in Q1 2009. Claims from natural catastrophes made up 5.9 percentage points of the combined ratio compared to 2.1 percentage points in the first quarter of last year.

"The Property-Casualty segment was hit harder than usual by natural catastrophes during the first quarter. It is too early to say whether NatCat claims will revert to a normal level for the year as a whole, but we will be watching this closely," said Oliver Bäte, chief financial officer.

Financial highlights € (2009 in brackets)

• Revenues 30.6bn (27.7bn)
• Operating profit 1,709m (1,419m)
• Pre-tax income 1,968m (445m)
• Net income (continuing operations) 1,588 (424m)
• Net income (1,588m) (29)
• Combined ratio 100.4% (98.7%)

Operating profit/loss by division

• P&C 712m (969m)
• Life/health 812m (402m)
• Asset management 466m (211m)
• Corporate and other -251m (-184m)
• Consolidation -30m (21m)

Net income/loss by division

• P&C 591m (443m)
• Life/health 561m (326m)
• Asset management 143m (92m)
• Corporate and other 224m (-471m)
• Consolidation 69m (34m)