Generali’s strategy helps to deliver strong Q2 results

Italian insurance group Generali posted strong results in the second quarter of 2014 as the group continued to strengthen its capital position while making a number of disposals.

The insurer’s operating profit rose by 20.4 percent to €1.25 billion in the quarter, compared with €1.04 billion in the quarter a year before.

The company made a net profit of €1.075 billion for the first half of 2014, a small decrease compared with €1.08 billion in the first half of 2013.

Its gross written premiums (GWP) hit €35.4 billion the quarter, an increase of 3.4 percent from €34.5 billion in the second quarter of 2013. A major contributor to this was Generali’s life segment where GWP rose 5.4 percent to €24.3 billion.

In the property and casualty segment, its combined ratio improved slightly to 92.8 percent for the first half of 2014, compared with 94.6 percent in the second half of 2013.

Mario Greco, Generali group chief executive officer, said: “These results show that we are quickly moving towards achieving our targets ahead of plan. We have reached our Solvency I and net free surplus targets, and our operating RoE is within sight. Moreover, we have concluded our non-core asset disposal process and rebuilt our capital position to a level that allows us to reactivate the growth of the Group. The numbers we report today are the direct result of the initiatives we have launched in the past twelve months to develop innovative products to attract new customers and grow our presence in new markets.

“I would like to thank all colleagues for their hard work in making these results possible. It is thanks to them we are in sight of completing an extremely challenging and complex turnaround. We are now entering a new phase for our group: for the very first time after many years, Generali is growing its market share, delivering growth in profits and providing good returns for shareholders.”