(Bloomberg) -- Assicurazioni GeneraliSpA’s fourth-quarter profit rose less than some analystsexpected on a writedown of its stake in BTG Pactual Group and lowerincome at its life business. The shares had their biggest declinein more than a month.

The insurer, which appointed Philippe Donnet as its chiefexecutive officer on Thursday, said net income rose to 304 millioneuros ($344 million) from 81 million euros a year earlier. Thatmissed the 476 million-euro average estimate of four analysts in aBloomberg survey. Italy’s largest insurer increased its dividend to72 cents a share from 60 cents the previous year.

“Generali’s results were worse than expected,” Farooq Hanif andDarshan Mistry, two analysts at Citigroup Inc., said in noteon Friday. They attributed this to higher life-insurance expensesand non-operating items.

Donnet is replacing Mario Greco, now CEO at Zurich InsuranceGroup AG, at a time when low interest rates andpressure on prices are making it more difficult for insurers tomaintain earnings growth. Trieste-based Generali’s share price hasfallen about 19% this year after Greco’s departure createduncertainty over the company’s future direction.

Impairment charge

The insurer’s operating income at it life segment declined 14%to 627 million euros, while operating results at its non-lifedivision rose 27% to 382 million euros. Non-operating investmentwas hurt in the quarter by a 90 million-euro net impairment ofinsurer stake in BTG Pactual, Generali CFO Alberto Minali said on aconference call.

Generali received the BTG stake as part of sale of its assetmanagement unit BSI to BTG last year. In 2015, the company postedimpairments related to the sale of Swiss bank BSI and its stake inRussian insurer OEO Ingosstrakh.

Generali fell as much as 3.2% in Milan, the biggest intradaydrop since Feb. 11. The shares were down 2.3% to 13.56 euros at10:52 a.m.

‘Positive signal’

Donnet, 55, joined as CEO of Generali Italy in 2013. The Frenchnative has held several roles at insurance companies in Italy,France and Asia and worked for Axa SA, France’s largest insurer,from 1985 to 2007.

“The replacement with an internal manager is a positive signalof business continuity,” said Jacopo Ceccatelli, chief executiveofficer of Marzotto SIM SpA, a Milan-based brokerage. “It ends theuncertainty that may have contributed to the not-so-goodperformance of the stock this year.”

Generali confirmed its target of a return on equity of more than13% in 2016.

Claims and costs as a proportion of non-life insurance premiums,known as the combined ratio, improved to 93.1%, benefiting from alower loss ratio. Generali’s economic solvency ratio, a key measureof capital strength, rose to 202% from 196% in September, accordingto the insurer’s internal model based on a set of European Unioncapital rules called Solvency II.

Related: Zurich needs clear strategy to rebuild trust, Grecotells staff

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