German reinsurance group Hannover Re reported a 66.0-percent leap in net profit in the third quarter, saying on Tuesday that the results had been helped strongly by tax factors.
Hannover Re had explained last month that a judicial decision would relieve it of a risk of double taxation in Germany on sales made by a subsidiary in Ireland, with the result of a boost to third-quarter net profit of 100 million euros.
In the light of this strong performance, the group raised sharply its outlook for net profit for the whole of this year to more than 700.0 million euros from 600.0 million euros targeted previously.
The net profit so far this year is already 582 million euros. The net figure for the quarter was 271 million euros (373 million dollars), exceeding expectations by analysts polled by Dow Jones Newswires who had expected the increase on a 12-month comparison to be 54.0 percent.
Over the first nine months of the year, earnings before interest and tax amounted to 862.0 million euros, representing an increase of 1.2 percent from the equivalent figure last year. Of this total, 371 million euros was generated in the third quarter alone.
On Tuesday, the other leading German reinsurance group, Munich Re, reported a 19.0-percent rise in third-quarter net profit to 764.0 million euros, and it raised its forecast for full-year net profit to 2.4 billion euros from more than 2.0 billion euros expected previously.
Reinsurance companies take on part of the risk being re-distributed by front-line insurance firms.
Frankfurt, Nov 10, 2010 (AFP)
