(Il Sole 24 Ore Radiocor) - Milano, 21 mag - In the first quarter, Italian insurer Generali posted an 8.1% increase in operating profit to 2.235 billion euros with positive contributions from all segments.

Operating profit in the Life segment rose 9.9% to 1.09 billion euros, in Property & Casualty it was up 1.2% to 1.041 billion euros, and in Asset & Wealth Management it was 15.5% higher at 314 million euros.

In P&C, the combined ratio rose 0.8 percentage points to 90.5% and the undiscounted combined ratio was up 1.1 points to 93.1%, reflecting a significant impact from natural catastrophe events. A combined ratio under 100% indicates that an insurer is making an underwriting profit, while over 100% indicates it is paying out more money in claims and expenses than it is collecting in premiums.

Gross written premiums rose 6.8% to 28.155 billion euros, with Life volumes up 7.5% at 17.184 billioon euros and P&C 5.8% higher at 11 billion euros.

Net inflows in the Life segment jumped 48.8% to 4.298 billion euros.

Net profit fell 2.2% to 1.169 billion euros reflecting the impact from financial markets on investments held at fair value through profit or loss during the first quarter as well as tax effects.

On an adjusted basis, the bottom line rose 5.2% to 1.266 billion euros reflecting a tax amount of 623 million euros, including a one-off component of around 50 million euros in France, which increased the tax rate in the quarter by around 2.5 percentage points. Without this one-off tax item, the adjusted net result growth rate would have been 9.3% and the.

adjusted earnings per share growth would have been 10.2%.

(RADIOCOR) 21-05-26 08:13:20 (0145) 5 NNNN