MUNICH, April 26 (Reuters) - Munich Re expects net profit of more than 750 million euros ($989 million) in the first quarter, above expectations, helped by a drop in big damage claims and financial market tensions, its chief executive said on Thursday.
The figure is well above the 681 million euro average expectation of analysts' forecasts in data compiled by Thomson Reuters. Munich posted a loss of around 948 million euros in the year-earlier quarter.
"We assume that we've earned more than 750 million euros in quarterly profit," Nikolaus von Bomhard said in the text of a speech to the annual meeting of shareholders.
The world's biggest reinsurer repeated that it sees net profit rebounding to around 2.5 billion euros this year from 712 million last year, when results were hit by a slew of natural disasters and financial market disruption from the euro zone debt crisis.
Data from StarMine, which weights analyst forecasts according to their track record, show Munich Re trading at 7.7 times 12-month forward earnings, on par with world No. 3 reinsurer Hannover Re but at a discount to Swiss Re's multiple of 9.0.
($1 = 0.7585 euros) (Reporting by Christian Kraemer, writing by Jonathan Gould)
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