Zurich Insurance Sees Revenue Growth, Confirms Targets
By Paolo Laudani
(Reuters) -Zurich Insurance reported higher first-quarter revenue and gross written premiums at its core property and casualty (P&C) business on Thursday, maintaining its targets despite instability in the crucial U.S. market.
Europe's third-largest insurer by market capitalisation said in a statement that rate increases of 4%, strong profitability in commercial and improved retail margins supported growth.
Oddo and Vontobel analysts said the results were solid but the latter noted that some investors might be concerned about the company's exposure to the United States and the dollar's weakness following President Donald Trump's often confusing rollout of tariffs.
Chief Financial Officer Claudia Cordioli told reporters on a call after the results that "there's no indication whatsoever" the turmoil in U.S. markets will lead the insurer to step back from its targets.
"We have a significant presence in the U.S., but so do we in Europe, in Asia... The fact that we are translating business written in Europe or in Asia into dollars is actually a positive on our earnings because obviously that's translating into a higher income in U.S. dollar," she said.
The United States is Zurich Insurance's single largest market, accounting for more than 40% of the P&C business.
Late last year, the insurer said it was aiming for a core return on equity of more than 25% between 2025 and 2027 and for cumulative cash generation of above $19 billion.
It posted P&C insurance revenue of $10.7 billion in the first quarter, above last year's $10.2 billion, while gross written premiums in the branch grew 5% year-on-year.
Zurich also said it saw natural catastrophe losses with a combined ratio impact of 3.2%, up from 1.6% a year earlier, noting that this was driven by losses from the California wildfires for which it estimated in February a pre-tax impact of $200 million.
Excluding the impact from the wildfires, the first quarter "has been unusually benign when it comes to weather losses and catastrophe losses", Cordioli said.
Finnish insurer Sampo also said on Wednesday that favourable weather-related claims prompted a smaller-than-expected drop in quarterly profit.
(Reporting by Paolo Laudani in Gdansk; additional reporting by Paul Arnold in Zurich; Editing by Jacqueline Wong, Christopher Cushing and Emelia Sithole-Matarise)
