Insurance
Storms cloud Helvetia’s half-year results
The insurance group, based in St. Gallen and Basel, was able to expand its business volume in the first half of the year. However, the storms in June led to a higher claim burden.
The clean-up work in the storm areas in Misox is ongoing.
Image: Alessandro Crinari/Keystone/TI-Press
The storms that hit Switzerland in June also had an impact on the results of the Helvetia Insurance Group. The burden of claims from natural disasters has increased significantly compared to the same period last year. This is evident in the results for the Swiss market. Here, Helvetia reported an adjusted (underlying) result of 63.6 million francs in the non-life sector in the first half of the year, around 40 million below the same period last year.
This result was offset by better results in Germany, Spain and Italy. However, a major loss was also recorded in France. This meant that the combined ratio, which is important for the sector, deteriorated by 1.4 percentage points to 95.4 percent compared to the previous year. If the value is below 100 percent, then the business is profitable.
Life and fee business offset setbacks
Adjusted non-life profit fell by 16 percent to 157 million francs across the entire group due to the burdens. In the life business, this profit fell by 11 percent to 135 million. In contrast, the Moneypark write-off of 27 million francs recorded in the previous year was eliminated, reducing the division’s loss to 7.1 million francs after a deficit of 48 million francs in the previous year.
Fabian Rupprecht has been CEO of the Helvetia Group since last autumn.
Image: Gerhard Zerbes, www.zerbes.de
The fee business is becoming more important with the acquisition of Caser, which operates in the Spanish healthcare market. Fees increased by 8.4 percent to 211 million francs in the reporting period. So-called fees are also generated from the sale of investment-linked pension products.
According to CEO Fabian Rupprecht, efforts to improve technical profitability also helped to offset the higher claims burden. The group’s net profit rose slightly by 0.3 percent to 259 million francs according to IFRS accounting. At the same time, Helvetia is reviewing its strategy. As CEO Rupprecht announced, the results will be presented in December.
