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The logo of French Insurer Axa is seen outside a building in Montaigu, France, February 23, 2022. REUTERS/Stephane Mahe/File Photo
Aug 3 (Reuters) – French insurer AXA (AXAF.PA) on Thursday posted a better-than-expected 5% increase in half-year underlying earnings, driven by higher premiums and below-average damage claims for natural catastrophes in the company’s property and casualty (P&C) business.
Its half-year underlying profit reached 4.11 billion euros ($4.49 billion), above the 3.96 billion euros forecast in company-compiled consensus.
“The increase in pricing we are observing now is the result of inflation and the rise in reinsurance rates,” said Alban de Mailly Nesle, AXA’s chief financial officer, in a conference call with journalists.
AXA also said on Thursday it had agreed to buy Irish health insurer Laya from Corebridge Financial, a subsidiary of AIG (AIG.N), for 650 million euros to expand its position on the European health market.
Europe’s second-biggest insurer after Germany’s Allianz (ALVG.DE) reported a jump to 235% in its end-June Solvency II ratio, a key measure for its financial health, up 20 percentage points from end-Dec and above the estimate of 222%.
AXA said its damage claims from French riots in late June and July amounted to around 125 million euros, and their impact was already included in the insurer’s half-year report.
90% of those damages were incurred by businesses and professionals rather than private households, Frédéric de Curtois, AXA’s deputy chief executive, said in a conference call.
The total cost of insurance claims following the urban unrest amounted to 650 million euros, mainly affecting professional and local authority property, according to the French insurers association France Assureurs.
($1 = 0.9136 euros)
Reporting by Laura Lenkiewicz; Editing by Kirsti Knolle
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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