Allianz Group has reported growth in revenues and new business in its life and health insurance business in its 2013 third quarter results.
Premiums in Life and Health insurance rose in the third quarter to €12.7bn from €11.9bn. This represents an increase of 6.6% from the previous year's third quarter. Demand was especially healthy in Germany and Italy, the insurer said.
Operating profit was €769m, a decrease of 5.6% from €815m achieved the same time last year. Allianz Group attributed this to a lower investment result in Germany and investment de-risking in Italy were the largest drivers for this development. At the same time, operating profit grew in France, Spain and the US.
The new business margin increased to 2.3% in the third quarter of 2013 from 1.6% for the same period in the previous year. The value of new business increased by 44.3% to €215m from €149m.
"Growth in revenues and new business margin in the third quarter makes me confident about our Life and Health insurance segment," said Dieter Wemmer, CFO of Allianz SE.
"Our products clearly remain appealing to our customers. This is not least because we combine attractive returns with high security in the ongoing low interest rate environment."
Across the business, Allianz Group continued its good development from the first half of the year despite negative foreign currency effects.
At €25.1 billion euros, revenues were close to the previous year's level of €25.2bn euros, a decline of 0.2%. Operating profit was €2.5bn, declining 0.7% from the previous year's third quarter. Net income attributable to shareholders increased 6.3% to over €1.4bn from under €1.4bn.
"Given the positive development of the Allianz Group for the first nine months of 2013, we now expect our operating profit for the full year to be slightly above € 9.7bn, the upper end of our previously stated target range," said Michael Diekmann, CEO of Allianz SE.
