Swiss Re delivers billions in net income
Swiss Re has delivered a net income of US$4.4 billion for 2013, which the company says was ‘driven by sustained, high profitability in property and casualty (P&C) reinsurance and very good performances by Corporate Solutions and Admin Re’, although life and health reinsurance delivered a reduced profit due to reserve strengthening in Australia. Swiss Re’s Board of Directors will propose a regular dividend of CHF3.85 per share and, in addition, a special dividend of CHF4.15 per share.
Swiss Re has delivered a net income of US$4.4 billion for 2013, which the company says was ‘driven by sustained, high profitability in property and casualty (P&C) reinsurance and very good performances by Corporate Solutions and Admin Re’, although life and health reinsurance delivered a reduced profit due to reserve strengthening in Australia. Swiss Re’s Board of Directors will propose a regular dividend of CHF3.85 per share and, in addition, a special dividend of CHF4.15 per share.
Michel M. Liès, Swiss Re’s group chief executive officer, said of the results: “All business units contributed to this excellent result, with a particularly strong performance from P&C Re and continued profitable growth from Corporate Solutions. We are very happy that we have achieved so much in financial terms in our anniversary year and, while we are well aware of the challenges ahead, we look forward to 2014 with confidence.”
Net income was $4.4 billion in 2013 (vs $4.2 billion in 2012). Premium and fee income grew by 13 per cent to $28.8 billion (vs $25.4 billion). Solid underwriting from prior years contributed to the strong performance by the P&C businesses, as well as a number of one-off tax benefits across the Group and reserve releases totalling $1 billion. Net investment income, gains from alternative investments and realised gains from sales contributed to the strong investment result of $4.3 billion for the year, with a return on investments of 3.6 per cent (vs 4.0 per cent in 2012). The investment result includes the contribution from Principal Investments, a dedicated unit to generate long-term economic value via investments in insurance-related businesses. The Group combined ratio was excellent at 85.3 per cent. Adjusting for prior-year reserve releases and lower than expected natural catastrophe losses, the underlying combined ratio for the year was 94.6 per cent.