Hannover Re Income Up; Premium Down
NU Online News Service, Aug. 12, 11:00 a.m. EDT?Hannover Re reported a half-year increase in net income of 30 percent, despite a significant decrease in gross premium income.[@@]
The giant reinsurer, based in Hannover, Germany, reported net income of 211.5 million euros ($258 million) from 162.4 million euros ($198.1 million) earned in the first half of 2003.
Across all four business lines, gross premium income declined by less than 20 percent for the first half of the year to 4.8 billion euros ($5.8 billion), from 6 billion euros ($7.32 billion) in the first half of 2003.
Wilhelm Zeller, Hannover Re chairman, said the half-year numbers reflect the company's "more from less" initiative under which the enterprise is focusing on profitable market segments.
"A significant decline in gross premium income, due in part to our proactive cycle management, is in no way a cause of concern. Quite the contrary, we have once again demonstrated that profitability alone is what counts in our industry, not volume."
Property-casualty net income rose less than 14 percent to 115.9 million euros ($141.4 million) from 101.3 million euros ($123.6 million) in the comparable year-ago period. The combined ratio improved to 94.3 percent from 98.6 percent in the first half of last year.
The life and health reinsurance numbers for the first half of 2004 told much the same story, with net income nearly doubling to 23.7 million euros ($28.9 million) from 12 million euros (14.6 million) last year.
Want to continue reading?
Become a Free PropertyCasualty360 Digital Reader
Your access to unlimited PropertyCasualty360 content isn’t changing.
Once you are an ALM digital member, you’ll receive:
- Breaking insurance news and analysis, on-site and via our newsletters and custom alerts
- Weekly Insurance Speak podcast featuring exclusive interviews with industry leaders
- Educational webcasts, white papers, and ebooks from industry thought leaders
- Critical converage of the employee benefits and financial advisory markets on our other ALM sites, BenefitsPRO and ThinkAdvisor
Already have an account? Sign In Now
© 2024 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.