Unipol has published its 2020 accounts, which saw a solid defense of profit at €864m, albeit down 20% compared to 2019. However, the 2019 figure benefited from an item of €421m linked to the accounting of the quota in Bper: net of this, the profit of the insurance group would even be up 23,6%, despite the difficult context. This performance, added to the return of the dividend with a coupon of €0,28 per share, 55% higher than the 18 cents of 2019, thrilled investors: in the morning the Unipol share rose against the trend with the Ftse Mib, only to then slow down in the afternoon.
The Bologna-based group also confirmed its objectives for this year, which will even be improved according to the declarations of CEO Carlo Cimbri: "We will certainly beat the 2021 plan targets on Uniposai and its dividend, but we will always manage this last objective with a keep an eye on Solvency and prudence”. Cimbri also spoke on theBper-Banco Bpm transaction: “Bper will have intense months, between renewal of the board of directors and integration of Ubi Banca branches, and cannot now face an extraordinary operation whatever it may be. However, Unipol remains open to M&A transactions that can create value, however it will also evaluate them from the point of view of industrial effects".
“Bper – continued the manager – carries out the migration of customers it acquires from Ubi. This is the beginning of a journey and a phase of discontinuity and extraordinaryness, which will characterize their work throughout the year. The board of directors' mandate is about to expire and needs to be renamed. As an industrial shareholder, our assessment of hypotheses, proposals and ideas that Bper management should submit will also be assessed on the industrial effects for the Unipol group. It should not be forgotten that Bper is our partner in bancassurance”.
Going back to Unipol's financial statements, the group's result was driven by the sharp decline in claims, which allowed the non-life sector to close with a normalized pre-tax profit of 1.124 million, from 810 million in 2019, and thus offset the life result, which achieved pre-tax profits that fell from 236 to 71 million, "due to the the lower contribution of financial management characterized, in 2020, by higher losses on realization". As regards the real estate, holding and other activities sectors, the negative result of 2019 widens, with a pre-tax loss growing from 84 to 128 million. In a year strongly characterized by the consequences of the health emergency caused by the Covid19 pandemic which affected both commercial activity and the loss ratio, collection dropped by 12,9% to 12,2 billion.
The drop was an effect of the decrease in both non-life (-3,5% to 7,9 billion) and life (-26% to 4,3 billion). On the other hand, the health sector is doing well, with UniSalute which saw premiums grow by 7,7% on 2019. The decline in claims is reflected in that of the combined ratio, an indicator of the profitability of technical management, which improved from 94,2% to 87%. The solvency ratio also made strong progress, rising at the end of last year to 214%, from 187% in 2019.
