TrygVesta saw sustained growth in the third quarter of the year and maintains its target of full-year growth of 8%. The Group upgrades its full-year post-tax profit forecast from DKK 1.7bn to DKK 1.8bn. Sweden reported a three-month profit for the first time.
The TrygVesta insurance group reported continued strong growth for the third quarter of 2009. Growth in earned premiums of 11.4% in local currency terms (7.3% in DKK terms) was driven partly by strong growth in the number of insurances in Sweden and Finland, partly by an influx of new customers in Denmark and Norway.
TrygVesta recorded gross earned premiums of DKK 4,747m in the third quarter of 2009. The Group’s pre-tax profit increased from DKK 198m to DKK 717m, mainly attributable to an improvement of the investment return. The insurance operations reported a profit of DKK 397m, which was DKK 149m less than in the year-earlier period.
The Group’s pre-tax profit the first nine months of the year increased from DKK 999m to DKK 2,038m. Profit for the period after tax increased 128% to stand at DKK 530m.
TrygVesta upgrades its full-year post-tax profit forecast from DKK 1.7bn to DKK 1.8bn based on the improved investment return. The profit forecast before tax is upgraded from DKK 2.2bn to DKK 2.4bn.
Improvement in the Nordic region
Group CEO Stine Bosse comments :
“Our third quarter performance clearly demonstrates the advantages of being a Nordic insurance group,” said .
“We reported our best performance in Norway since Q4 2007, thanks to measures such as price adjustments and cost restraint. At the same time, we managed to increase our market share and maintain our high customer loyalty rates.”
“We can apply this experience in the Danish market, where the profitability of our house and contents insurances is not quite good enough. This is a problem prevailing in the entire industry, and we are going to see price adjustments in the upcoming period. Furthermore, the price adjustments we have already implemented will improve profitability going forward.”
“We passed a milestone in Sweden which produced its first quarterly profit since we began operations there in 2006. Moderna, which we acquired in April 2009, contributed excellent growth and good profitability. Premium increases effective from 1 April will gradually improve profitability in the remaining part of our Swedish business.”
“Finland continued to report strong growth, and the Finnish branch is seeking to strike a better balance between growth and profitability in order to become profitable,” said Stine Bosse.
