Allianz closed 2015 with revenues up 2,4% on an annual basis, reaching a record amount of 125,2 billion euros. Operating profit instead rose by 3,2% to 10,7 billion, in line with analysts' expectations, "thanks to a good fourth quarter", while net profit increased by 6,3% to 6,6 6,7 billion (XNUMX billion market expectations).
The German insurance company “continues to record very good results under increasingly challenging operating conditions. Our business is healthy and well diversified, which makes us confident that we will continue to post very good earnings well into the future,” said the chairman of the management board, Oliver Baete, at the first annual report conference where he covers this assignment.
"For 2016 we expect an operating profit of 10,5 billion with a margin of more or less 500 million", added Baete, who announced for 2015 a dividend up 6,6% to 7,30 euros per share.
Chief Financial Officer Dieter Wemmer indicated that “active risk management has led to a strong capital ratio at 200% (191% in 2014, ed) under Solvency II rules, which positions us well in the face of the current volatility of markets".
Operating profit for 2015 almost reached the peaks of the range estimated by the group in 2015 thanks to growth in the insurance sector, while asset management operating profit fell, in line with expectations. Also last year, Allianz's Roe fell to 12,5%, from 13% in 2014.
In detail, in the non-life business, premium income rose by 6,8% to 51,6 billion (+2,9% net of currency effects) and operating profit by 4,1% to 5,6 billion with a combined ratio at 94,6% (+0,3 percentage points), while in the life business it fell by 0,6% to 66,9 billion and operating profit rose by 14,1% to 3,8 billion and in Asset management revenues rose 1,4% to $6,5 billion and operating profit fell 11,8% to approximately $2,3 billion.
The group found, for asset management, that outflows from the Pimco fund almost halved in 2015 compared to 2014 and that Allianz Global Investors recorded a record level of operating profit since the activation of the new structure of the Asset Management division in 2012.
As for Italy, last year Allianz recorded a 5,3% increase in life premium income to approximately €11,94 billion and a 55,3% leap in operating profit to €268 million, a percentage higher than the growth in operating profit in other regions (+16,4% in Germany, +28,3% in the USA and +20,9% in France). The value of the new business, also in Italy, instead dropped last year by 32,2% to 111 million.
Last year our country rose to second place in terms of premium income in the life business for Allianz behind Germany (-6,7% in 2015 to 17,74 billion) overtaking the USA, which in 2015 ranked third with 10,47 billion (-11,5%). In the non-life business, the Bavarian insurance company recorded a 13,3% increase in premium income in Italy to over 4,75 billion (-1,6% excluding currency effects) and a 15,4% increase in operating profit to over 1,07 83,1 billion with a combined ratio of 82,5% (from 2014% in XNUMX).
