Generali focuses on asset management. Il Leone has announced a new strategy for this division which will be based on two pillars: growing its expertise and offering tailor-made investment solutions for European companies and savings products for private clients.
The first step will be to develop a real asset and active management platform to achieve higher returns and profits. This will allow Generali to offer more investment products and solutions through its unit-linked platform in Europe. The creation of the new platform will be achieved both by capitalizing on existing expertise and by acquiring new skills from portfolio managers with excellent track records, from experts in real assets such as infrastructure debt, direct lending or other private capital segments.
The cornerstone of this strategy will be the enhancement of Generali's experience in the management of insurance assets through the creation of an Insurance Solutions Team capable of offering tailor-made end-to-end management services and consultancy for liability-driven investors. Private clients will be given exclusive access to high conviction portfolio managers to offer them investment solutions that protect long-term savings in the current low interest rate environment.
The results of this transformation, according to the group, will be an improvement in the efficiency of the asset management business by reducing the cost/income ratio by 16 percentage points to 55% by 2020. The strategy aims to achieve a net result by 2020 €300 million annually for the asset management division and €500 billion in assets under management.
“Thanks to our assets of approximately 450 billion in Europe, we have a unique opportunity to increase internally managed assets and optimize our operating structures also by rationalizing costs – commented Tim Ryan, group chief investment officer and CEO of asset & wealth management – We will build an innovative multi-boutique platform that integrates new highly specialized investment skills with existing ones, benefiting from a highly centralized structure. Generali has deep experience in insurance liability management and our new Insurance Solutions team will be dedicated to capturing the management needs of the €9 trillion assets present in the insurance sector in Europe. In addition, private clients will benefit from a portfolio of innovative investment solutions thanks to our actively managed multi-strategy platform. Our new strategy will ensure our clients excellent financial returns, allowing us to become the best trusted partner for their investments”.
As regards the accounts, Generali archives the first quarter with a net profit down by 9% to 535 million euros, below expectations which were on average by 597 million, and an operating result up by 4,2% to 1,2 .93,1 billion euros in line with the consensus. The Combined ratio is 13,6%, despite higher catastrophe claims while the annualized operating Roe improves to 13%, in line with targets (over 2,5%). Premiums fell by 19,2% to 1,9 billion with Non-Life up by 4,6% and Life down by XNUMX%.
The decrease in the net result, explains the note, is attributable to the lower non-operating result of investments mainly following the policy of reducing profits from realization and the greater impact of taxes. The Regulatory Solvency Ratio is 178% while the Economic Solvency Ratio is 195%.
