By Ulrike Dauer
FRANKFURT--Allianz SE (ALV.XE) said Friday that second-quarter
net profit rose 23%, helped by lower sovereign debt losses, plus
gains in life & health insurance, asset management and
investments.
These improvements more than offset property & casualty
claims for mid-sized weather events such as earthquakes in Italy,
tornadoes in the U.S. and thunderstorms in Germany, a EUR120
million upward revision for claims related to the flooding in
Thailand and lower releases of reserves.
Allianz, Europe's biggest insurer by market capitalization and
premium income, also reassured investors that it is on track for
2012 operating profit in the targeted range of 7.7 billion euros
($9.5 billion) and EUR8.7 billion, though it stopped short of
raising hopes that it now expects to reach the upper end of that
guidance, which some investors expect.
"Our consistently good results show that we weather the
difficult market conditions very well. Our operative business is
stable and remains on course," said Chief Executive Michael
Diekmann.
Net profit rose to EUR1.23 billion from EUR1 billion a year
earlier, beating the average estimate of EUR1.21 billion in a Dow
Jones Newswires poll.
Operating profit, which many companies consider a better
reflection of performance, rose 2.8% to EUR2.36 billion, above
analyst forecasts of EUR2.21 billion.
Last year around this time Allianz wrote down the value of its
entire Greek sovereign debt portfolio to market value, which cut
EUR326 million from quarterly net profit and EUR76 million from
operating profit, entirely in the life & health business. This
year there weren't any major debt impairments.
Total revenue was EU26.2 billion, a 2.5% increase and above the
forecast EUR25.04 billion.
Allianz competes with French AXA SA (CS.FR) and Italy's
Assicurazioni Generali SpA (G.MI) for clients seeking insurance and
retirement products, motor policies and investment funds.
Shares closed down EUR2.81, or 3.5%, at EUR78.62 Thursday,
underperforming the Stoxx 600 Insurance index, which ended down
2.8%. The shares have lost 4% over the past year, lowering market
capitalization to EUR36 billion.
-Write to Ulrike Dauer at ulrike.dauer@dowjones.com
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