Zug, Switzerland-domiciled reinsurer SIGNAL IDUNA Reinsurance Ltd (SI Re) has reported a profit of €10.4 million for the full year 2024, improving over 2023’s figure of €8.8 million by 17.7%.
The company’s shareholder equity for FY’24 hit €209.4 million, remaining at a consistently high level of 22.2% of the balance sheet total of €941.6 million.
SI Re’s net earned premiums increased slightly to €204.8 million, the insurance lines stayed largely unchanged. Meanwhile, motor insurance premiums increased by €3.4 million over 2023, while the firm reduced exposure to agricultural business, which is impacted by recurring flood and hail losses, by €3.3 million. The share of group business increased from 24.4% to 25.7%, mainly due to premium growth in the original lines.
The full year net combined ratio fell from 96.5% in 2023 to 96% in 2024 due to prudent reserving practice. The coverage ratio, that is ratio of net technical provisions to net earned premiums, remained high at 329.9%, slightly below the prior-year level of 331.2%.
Overall, SI Re posted an improved technical result by 44.7 % to €13.8 million, corresponding to 6.7% of net earned premiums, compared to 4.7% in 2023.
Two years ago, SI Re increased the share of long-tail business in its non-proportional book by almost 30%. Due to the resulting reallocation and reduction of the property book, the reinsurer was only marginally affected by the high level of natural catastrophe losses in 2024.
During the year, SI Re reveals that it expanded its client base by 8.5%, following a growth of 6% in the previous year.
The investment holding increased over the previous year to €821 million, a 3.2% increase, as the quality of fixed-income securities, excluding insurance-linked securities (ILS) book, and of cash and cash equivalents remained high at A+. Fixed-income investments made up the biggest share at 88.9%, including 10.3 percentage points in ILS investments.
Bertrand R. Wollner, Chief Executive Officer, commented, “We significantly strengthened the equalisation provisions for investments at year-end, despite the highly volatile financial and capital markets during the year. They now account for 4% (previous year 2.9%) of recognised investments.
“Inflation remained persistent and was slow to approach the 2 % target rate. As a result, interest rate cuts by the European Central Bank (ECB) were lower than expected. With our book of business, we were able to benefit from this delayed development, the good equity market performance plus pleasing returns on ILS investments.”
Dr. Klaus Sticker, Chairman of the Board of Directors, added, “Our solvency ratio at 303% remains well above the requirements of the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA). In the 2024 financial year, Fitch Ratings upgraded SI Re’s financial strength rating to «A». The outlook remains stable. The rating agency stressed the importance of SI Re for the Group, our strong capitalisation and our prudent reserve management as the reasons behind their evaluation. Our previous rating had been «A-» ever since we were first rated in 2008.
“The Board of Directors recommends a dividend of €13 million to the General Meeting, €5 million of which are from profit brought forward. Following payment of the dividend, our shareholder equity will come to €196.4 million. We would like to thank our cedants and brokers most sincerely for their confidence in us. We also again extend our gratitude to our employees for their high and reliable commitment, without which this success would not be possible.”
