Hannover Re reported that its total renewed premium volume in traditional property and casualty reinsurance increased by 3.3% to €10.535 billion at the January 1, 2026 renewals, despite a highly competitive market environment.
The reinsurer noted that the growth was supported by its strong market position and long-standing, partnership-driven client relationships.
According to Hannover Re, treaties with a premium volume of €10.196 million were up for renewal on January 1. This corresponds to 61% of business in traditional property and casualty reinsurance (excluding facultative reinsurance, ILS business and structured reinsurance).
The firm renewed treaties with a volume of €9.369 million, while treaties worth €827 million were cancelled.
“Together with €1.165 million from new and restructured treaties and from changes in prices and treaty shares, the total renewed premium volume grew by 3.3% to €10.535 million,” Hannover Re explained.
The reinsurer added that with the quality of the renewed business still good overall, an average risk-adjusted price decline of 3.2% was recorded.
Sven Althoff, a member of Hannover Re’s Executive Board with responsibility for property and casualty reinsurance, commented, “While treaty terms and conditions remained largely stable, price declines were more pronounced than anticipated – especially in highly competitive lines and for contracts with a moderate loss experience.
“The price level is nevertheless above the multi-year average and remains commensurate with the risks. We therefore continued to profitably grow our portfolio by strengthening existing client relationships and developing new ones.
“Proportional programmes benefited from the growth of our clients’ underlying business. We also further improved our own retrocession protection.”
Looking at premium volume by region, Hannover Re reported that the Americas grew by 6.5% at January 1, with more than half of the business due to be renewed over the remainder of 2026.
“In the United States, the volume in property business was stable. Even though prices declined, they were still on a risk-adequate level. US casualty insurance offered selective opportunities for growth against a backdrop of generally stable prices. In Canada, the stable picture coming out of the renewals reflected a continued strong competitive position,” Hannover Re added.
Meanwhile, premium volume in the Europe, Middle East and Africa region was broadly unchanged year on year at January 1, rising by 0.4%.
The firm stated that it maintained a good level of profitability despite intense competition, particularly in business with natural catastrophe covers.
“The region offered a wide range of growth opportunities, although these were partially curtailed as individual clients – especially in Germany – carried higher retentions. Renewals were predominantly price-driven, with treaty structures remaining largely unchanged,” Hannover Re said.
At the same time, premium volume in the Asia-Pacific region increased by a modest 1.9%. The reinsurer noted initial signs of a broadening in terms and conditions in a challenging market landscape characterised by intense competition.
Hannover Re suggested that business written at unexpectedly low prices or with poorer terms and conditions were deliberately not renewed in some cases.
Despite this, the reinsurer said it was able to keep its profitable portfolio broadly stable overall. Parts of Southeast Asia saw particularly strong growth in demand for natural catastrophe cover in markets that had been hard hit by losses.
Turning to Hannover Re’s specialty lines segment, which includes facultative reinsurance, credit, surety and political risk, aviation and marine, agricultural risks, as well as cyber and digital business, premium volume grew by 5.8% at 1 January, again, despite a highly competitive market environment.
Hannover Re said its credit, surety and political risks business delivered double-digit growth amid an attractive market backdrop, while aviation and marine volumes declined as it pursued disciplined underwriting, with rate increases in non-proportional aviation but greater-than-expected pressure on marine pricing and terms.
Concurrently, agricultural lines continued to expand in core markets such as Brazil and the US with stable rate quality, and the company maintained market share and generated new business in cyber and digital.
In facultative reinsurance, oversupply and higher client retentions drove price declines, particularly in property, although Hannover Re renewed most of its portfolio at risk-adequate rates and added new treaties.
In the natural catastrophe business, abundant capacity led to risk-adjusted rate reductions of 10% to 20%, though pricing remained adequate overall, while structured reinsurance demand stayed strong despite competition, even as lower cessions under large contracts are expected to trim premium volumes.
With all this in mind, Clemens Jungsthöfel, Chief Executive Officer at Hannover Re, commented, “We booked profitable growth in a highly competitive market environment in the renewals at the start of the year.
“Our strong market position, long-standing and partnership-focused client relationships, as well as cost advantages, were crucial factors. We were able to partially offset more significant price reductions in certain lines within our overall portfolio thanks to our broad positioning.
“In areas where business is profitable, we were able to add to our market shares. The quality of our written portfolio remains on a good level overall.”
Alongside its renewal news, Hannover Re has also released preliminary key figures for the full 2025 financial year.
Based on unaudited financials, the reinsurer said it has generated reinsurance revenue of €26.8 billion in 2025, up from €26.4 billion in 2024.
The operating profit (EBIT) in the period is said to have amounted to €3.5 billion. Property and casualty reinsurance contributed €2.6 billion to the operating result, while life and health reinsurance accounted for a share of EUR 0.9 billion.
“The pleasingly strong underwriting result in property and casualty reinsurance made it possible also in the fourth quarter to further increase the resilience in the loss reserves and at the same time to realise hidden losses in the investment portfolio,” Hannover Re continued.
Finally, group net income rose to €2.64 billion from €2.33 billion, enabling Hannover Re to meet the earnings target it had raised in Q4 to around €2.6 billion.
Clemens Jungsthöfel concluded, “With the January renewals behind us and following a successful 2025, we are looking ahead with confidence. Even in the face of increasing competition, our careful planning and strong market position consistently open up additional profitable opportunities for growth.
“Thanks to our conservative reserving in property and casualty reinsurance and the active realisation of losses in our investments, we have laid the foundation for achieving further sustained earnings growth over the coming years.”
