Generali Group Poland in 1H2010: Premiums Written Up By 9% In H1 2010
Warsaw, 16-th of August 2010. The companies of Generali Group in Poland have had successful six months. The gross premiums written by the Group reached PLN 883.7 million* at the end of June 2010, growing by 9% year on year. This shows that Generali continues stable strong growth much above the average performance of other market players. This is confirmed by the most recent available statistics published by the Polish Financial Supervision Authority (KNF), which indicate that the Polish insurance sector grew by 3.6% at the end of March 2010, 2.5 times less than Generali has grown now. The Generali pension fund also performed well in Q2: it won the June ranking of the Best Financial Institutions published by the prestigious daily "Rzeczpospolita" and is the leader of KNF's latest ranking based on three-year investment return rates.
"The growth of Generali gross premiums written by close to 10% in H1 2010 means that we are growing almost three times faster than our market competitors on average. This is a reason for satisfaction considering the difficult macroeconomic environment, which hinders growth in the insurance sector. As far as results are concerned, this year, insurers have to face the impact of a harsh winter, several storms, and recently many waves of flooding, which put a very heavy burden on the results of the insurance industry in Poland in 2010," said Generali Poland Group CEO Andrzej Jarczyk.
NON-LIFE INSURANCE: Steady Progress On a Difficult Market
In H1 2010, gross premiums written by the non-life insurer Generali T.U. S.A. reached PLN 385.2 million, up by 6.8% year on year.
In H1 2010, Generali has focused on the sale of those non-life insurance products which generate higher profitability if compared to motor insurance, which is unprofitable at a market level. As a result, retail insurance products other than motor insurance (including household, SME, travel, and accident insurance) and corporate insurance represented more than 40% of Generali T.U.'s total non-life insurance portfolio in H1 2010 compared to 36.8% a year earlier.
Non-motor retail insurance grew by 43% and was the company's most dynamically growing business line in H1 2010 . Corporate insurance grew by 10%.
Generali motor insurance portfolio was stable at PLN 230.6 million (up by 1% year on year).
GENERALI ŻYCIE: Life Insurance Products with Regular Premiums Growing 6 Times Faster Than the Market
Generali Życie T.U. S.A. wrote premiums totalling PLN 498.5 million in H1 2010, up by 10.4%.
In H1 2010, Generali consolidated its very strong position in the segment of regular premium policies, which are core products for life insurers. This business grew by 29% (to PLN 217.8 million), while this segment of the Polish life insurance sector grew by only 5% according to the latest available statistics at the end of Q1 2010. The company owes its excellent performance mainly to very dynamic customer acquisition (as measured by APE - annualised premium equivalent), which was up by 45%. The growth was also driven by a very good retention rate of the portfolio, which is stable and close to the rate reported at the time of strong economic growth.
The performance was also driven, as in the previous periods, by very high effectiveness of sales in all of the main distribution channels, from the agent network to group sales and bancassurance.
The sales of products with single premiums grew to PLN 281 million in H1 2010, up by 2%.
GENERALI OFE: Pension Fund Winning Prestigious Rankings In H1
At the end of H1 2010, Generali OFE operated 723 thousand active pension accounts, up by 13.5% year on year. The growth rate was around four times the market average as the number of active accounts in the sector grew by 3.6% year on year. Generali OFE managed PLN 8.7 billion of assets at the end of June 2010, up by 38% year on year. Generali OFE's investment performance confirms that it remains one of the most effective funds in Poland: it is the leader of the latest ranking based on three-year investment return rates (March 2007 - March 2010) published by the Polish Financial Supervision Authority (KNF). Generali is also current leader of this ranking (as the only one with positive return rate) before next, September release of KNF (see graph below). Generali OFE is also the winner of the June ranking of the Best Financial Institutions published by the prestigious daily "Rzeczpospolita".
Generali Group's Consolidated Net Profit
At the end of H1 2010, the consolidated net profit of Generali Group was PLN 6.2 million v. PLN 7.6 million at the end of June 2009. The Group's H1 2010 net profit was affected mainly by the atmospheric events like snow, storms and floods, which inflated claims paid as well as created reserves.