German insurance giant Allianz posted a solid second-quarter net profit, boosted partly by its life and health divisions, and confirmed its full-year outlook.
Net profit rose more than 23 per cent in April to June, to reach 1.3 billion euros ($1.6 billion), the company said adding that the same period a year earlier had been hit by writedowns on Greek sovereign debt.
Analysts polled by Dow Jones Newswires had pencilled in an average estimate for 2012 second-quarter net profit of 1.21 billion euros.
“Despite the challenging environment, we confirm our outlook of an operating profit for 2012 of 8.2 billion euros, plus or minus 0.5 billion euros,” chief executive Michael Diekmann said in a written statement. Operating profit for the second quarter grew 2.8 per cent to 2.4 billion euros on 2.5 per cent stronger revenues which came to 25.2 billion euros, the company said.
Both the life and health insurance and asset management divisions recorded growth in operating profit, offsetting a more than 16-percent drop in operating profit in the natural disasters activities compared to the second quarter of 2011.
The company said that its life and health insurance business in Italy and Spain had seen “strong revenue growth for the second quarter of 2012, despite the ongoing sovereign debt crisis in Europe.”
Berlin, Aug 3, 2012 (AFP)
