Hannover Re posts top and bottom line growth in H1
German reinsurer Hannover Re reported strong results for the first half of 2015 as its profits and gross written premiums (GWP) hiked.
Based on its performance, the reinsurer raised its expectation for the full 2015 financial year to €950 million from €875 million.
Its profits jumped 19.7 percent to €531.9 million in the first half of 2015, compared with €444.4 million in the first half of 2014.
The reinsurer reported top line growth of 21.5 percent to €8.6 billion in the first half of 2015, compared with €7.1 billion in the same period of the prior year.
Hannover Re said the result could be attributed in part to the strength of the US dollar, but added that at constant exchange rates growth would still have come in at 9.5 percent.
The reinsurer added that key contributors to the growth were sizeable individual transactions in various regions and lines including Asia, North America, agricultural risk, and in the specialty field of insurance-linked securities.
Its property and casualty (P&C) division reported a 21.9 percent increase in GWP to €5 billion in the first half of 2015, compared with €4.1 billion in the same period of the prior year.
According to Hannover Re, major loss expenditure in the first half of 2015 stayed below the budgeted level of €294 million for the period at €197.4 million. The largest individual losses for the reinsurer were the storm Niklas at €35.4 million and an explosion on an oil platform in the Gulf of Mexico, which cost €32.9 million.
Within its life and health reinsurance division GWP increased by 21 percent to €3.6 billion in the period, compared with €3 billion in the first half of 2014.
Ulrich Wallin, chief executive officer of Hannover Re, said: "Both business groups – namely property and casualty and life and health reinsurance – and also the investment portfolio played a successful part in this positive result.
"The sustained strong profitability of property and casualty reinsurance shows that with our systematically pursued policy of selective underwriting we are well placed to tackle the conditions associated with challenging market phases."
