Zurich enjoys big Q1 rise in profits
Zurich Insurance Group enjoyed a 20 percent rise in net profits on the back of a small rise in revenues in the first quarter of 2014 as it started to implement a strategic programme designed to streamline the business.
The insurer made a net profit of $1.3 billion in the quarter, a 20 percent increase on the $1 billion it made a year earlier. Its business operating profit for the quarter was $1.4 billion, a 2 percent rise on the year before.
“This is a solid start to the year,” said chief financial officer George Quinn. “We see some early positive signs in the execution of our strategic targets for 2014 to 2016 but there is still much to do.
“As announced in March, we are implementing a programme to streamline the company, removing management layers between Group and the business units and empowering our people to act decisively in delivering first-class services to our customers. Global Life is progressing as planned and the development trend at Farmers is positive, while our General Insurance business reported a good combined ratio, benefitting from a relatively benign catastrophe environment and a one-off pension gain.”
Its general insurance units recorded an increase in operating profit of $38 million to $845 million, or by 5 percent in both US dollar terms and on a local currency basis. The gross written premiums and policy fees in this unit remained flat compared with the same period of 2013.
