Talanx, the parent of major reinsurance company Hannover Re, has announced that, based on preliminary unaudited consolidated figures, it has produced Group net income of €673 million (USD 809mn) for 2020.
The company notes that this is in spite of COVID-19 claims of an estimated €1.5 billion (USD 1.8bn) for the year, and in line with its November 2020 forecast of “clearly in excess of EUR 600 million”.
The substantial level of coronavirus claims experienced in the year were incurred mostly in the industrial insurance and reinsurance and retail Germany areas.
“Without these claims resulting from the historic global pandemic the Talanx Group would have exceeded last year’s record results,” says the firm.
In 2019, Talanx reported net income of €923 million (USD 1.1bn) despite a large loss bill of €1.3 billion (USD 1.6bn).
Throughout the past year, Talanx notes that continued operational improvements in both industrial lines and retail Germany divisions paid off; with the combined ratio at industrial lines, excluding the pandemic, totalling 98.7%. At the same time, the retail Germany business produced a combined ratio of 95.4%.
“Without the coronavirus and investments in the “KuRS” modernisation programme, the combined ratio would have been 94.3 percent. As a result, the division would have achieved its goals under the “KuRS” programme earlier than planned,” says Talanx.
For the current financial year, Talanx is maintaining its expectation of Group net income of between €800 million (USD 962mn) and €900 million (USD 1.1bn), despite the ongoing impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.
