Generali warns rates will be driven by reinsurance costs
Italy’s largest insurer, Generali, has reported a 9% fall in its Q1 net result to €1.12bn, after adjusting for capital gains booked in Q1 2023 and the disposal of TUA Assicurazioni, which otherwise would have seen the net result rise 5% to €1.26bn.
Cristiano Borean, group chief financial officer of Generali Group, said the first quarter of 2024 recorded continued growth in its operating result, up almost 6% to €1.9bn, across all business segments, with its acquisition of Liberty Seguros adding positively to the group’s earnings from February 2024. The group’s P&C business closed the quarter with an operating result 2% higher at €867m.
The group’s gross written premiums jumped 21% to €26.39bn in the first quarter.
P&C gross written premiums recorded an increase of 11% to €9.5bn, with both motor and non-motor booking growth, but an increase in the loss ratio to 61.7% saw the group’s combined ratio deteriorate slightly by 0.3 points to 91% for the quarter. Adding a note on rates going forward, Generali said it will “strengthen its adaptive approach towards tariff adjustments in both motor and non-motor, taking into account the increase in reinsurance coverage costs due to the increased natural catastrophe claims in recent years”.
Generali added that it will maximise profitable growth in the P&C line, focusing on non-motor business. It aims to strengthen its market position in countries with potential for higher levels of growth, it said, and in European insurance markets for professionals and small and medium-sized enterprises and individuals, building also on the acquisition of Liberty Seguros’s operations in Spain, Portugal and Ireland.
