Assicurazioni Generali, the world’s third largest insurance company said its net income for the first quarter fell to EUR535 million compared to EUR588 million last year.
Gross premium for the quarter fell by 2.5% year on year to EUR19.2 billion.
The Group CFO of Generali, Luigi Lubelli, commented: “The first quarter’s results confirm the excellent performance in terms of the Group’s profitability and capital strength. In a scenario of persisting financial market volatility and low interest rates, and considering the absence of catastrophes during the previous year, Generali has continued its disciplined and effective approach to its core business. We have generated further value, which is reflected in excellent results and technical performance among the best in the industry, with operating RoE again in line with the target at 13.6%.
He added that “Confirming the effectiveness of business operations in line with strategic objectives, the operating result increased due to the solid performance of the Property&Casualty business and improvement of the Life and Financial segments. The new business margin (NBM) continued to rise, reaching 37.8% and the combined ratio held to excellent levels, despite the stronger impact of natural catastrophes. In the Life segment, the trend in premiums and net cash inflows reflects the disciplined implementation of a more selective underwriting policy in the savings segment and the rebalancing in favour of products offering better risk-return terms. Premiums in the P&C segment, on the other hand, increased as a result of the good performance in both Motor and Non-Motor business”.
