Brazilian reinsurer IRB Brasil Resseguros SA (IRB Brasil Re) has announced that its net income increased 45% to 1.764 billion reais (US $400 million).
Up from 1.219 billion reais in 2018, the result marks several years of consistently improving performance for the company.
The fourth quarter of 2019 was by far the most profitable quarter of the year for IRB Brasil Re at 632 million reais, and was up 69.5% on the same period in the previous year.
This performance was reflected in the company’s underwriting result, which was up 30.9% to 1.532 billion reais (US $350 million) for the year and 51.7% to 543 million reais for the quarter.
Underwriting was lifted by a 22.3% increase in total written premium for the year, including a 14.4% increase in Brazilian premiums and a 34.4% increase in premiums written abroad.
“Focusing on high quality customer service, efficiency, and people, in 2019 we had another year of solid results for IRB Brasil RE, with growth in premiums and profits,” said the management of IRB Brasil Re.
“We maintain our growth strategy, delivering consistent results,” the statement continued. “We have identified encouraging prospects for 2020, with potential for evolution, especially in agribusiness, as a result of the increase in the largest subsidy for rural insurance, raised by the government from approximately R$400 million in 2019 to about R$1 billion in 2020.”
Prospects are also good for property insurance, driven by the resumption of real estate development launches seen as an investment alternative in a falling interest scenario.”
“We are committed to being an extremely efficient and agile company, which acts seriously, maintains a structured risk management model and prioritizes the generation of growing and sustainable results. We therefore reaffirm initiatives to keep our leading position in Brazil and to intensify our international expansion process.”
