| inbluevt | Date: Saturday, 2013/08/17, 3:47 AM | Message # 1 | DMCA |
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Zurich Insurance Group AG (ZURN), the biggest Swiss insurer, said the target for its general insurance
business was “challenging” after natural catastrophe losses cut second-quarter profit by 27 percent. Net income dropped to $789 million from $1.09 billion ayear ago, the Zurich-based company said in a statement today.
That missed the $823.8 million average estimate of five analysts surveyed by Bloomberg. The shares fell the most in three months. Zurich Insurance said operating profit declined 18 percentafter floods in central Europe in May and June cost about $140 million, while tornadoes in the U.S. produced claims of $52 million.
Low interest rates cut investment income and Chief Executive Officer Martin Senn said targets for the company’s
general insurance unit and its Farmers business in the U.S. “remain more challenging” than those for other operations.
“Overall it was a difficult quarter for Zurich, and slightly disappointing because of the investment income in
general insurance and the impact of catastrophes at Farmers Re,” said Daniel Bischof, a Zurich-based analyst with Helvea SA who has a neutral recommendation on the stock.
“There is no threat to the dividend though, and there were strong price increases in general insurance, which could offset some of the negative news in that unit.”
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Message edited by inbluevt - Saturday, 2013/08/17, 3:49 AM |
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