Swiss Re’s first-quarter results shone as far as profit and gross premiums were concerned, but the rest of the figures were a mixed bag.
In the three months through March the reinsurer posted net income of $457 million, compared with $656 million in the year earlier period. The profit was impacted negatively by, among other things, a $280 million pretax write-off resulting from changes to the U.S. GAAP reporting rules, Swiss Re reported on Friday.
Gross premiums in the first quarter rose 13 percent on the year to $11.5 billion, boosted by growth in all business sectors, but especially in life & health reinsurance (L&H Re) and life capital.
Swiss Re exceeded analyst expectations for profit of $437 million and gross premiums of $10.8 billion.
Damage-Costs-Ratio Tops 100 Percent
Swiss Re improved the property & casualty component of the key combined ratio, pushing it to 92 percent, compared with analyst expectations of 94.7 percent. Swiss Re attributed the decline to lower damage claims.
In the corporate solutions unit earnings were hit by business written in previous years when a «soft market» environment prevailed, pushing the combined ratio to 100.2 percent, compared with market expectations for 99.9 percent.
Softbank-Deal Unresolved
Swiss Re made no mention of the talks with the Japanese technology concern Softbank, which is keen to take a stake in Swiss Re, but there is apparently disagreement over the price and size of the stake. Against this background the talks seem to have reached a dead end, as finews.ch has also reported.
Previous indications from Swiss Re are that it is unwilling to sanction a Softbank stake of more than 10 percent of the reinsurer’s share capital.
