Address of the Chair of the Board of Management, Joachim Wenning, to the shareholders

In his address to the shareholders, Joachim Wenning, Chair of Munich Re’s Board of Management, expressed his continued satisfaction with the company’s business development: “We are currently leading the competition”. In the past financial year, Wenning reported, Munich Re had generated a net result of €5.7bn.

Looking ahead to 2025, the Chair of the Board of Management anticipated a result of €6bn. “If we succeed, our profit in the last year of Ambition 2025 will be more than twice as high as in the first”, said Wenning. As regards future earnings development, Wenning emphasised that Munich Re certainly hadn’t reached the finish line yet.

He said that both organic and inorganic growth would play a role in allowing the company to live up to its growth ambitions, and made reference to the recently announced takeover of NEXT Insurance. The Chair of the Board of Management said he was open to further acquisitions, particularly within Global Specialty Insurance.

By contrast, Wenning expressed his concern regarding current political developments. He pointed to the risk of a weakening of Europe and Germany due to both external and internal factors. He said that the situation had also been exacerbated by political misjudgements: “Some other factors have also done a disservice to the future of Germany and Europe: neglecting our defence, an immigration policy that is overwhelming us, an immense investment backlog in both physical and digital public infrastructure, not to mention Germany and Europe’s misguided approach of placing too much focus on redistribution instead of performance.”

Wenning explained that, these days, the corporate sector was no longer immune to political events. He stressed that to boost their competitive standing, Germany and Europe would have “to switch gears in all key aspects away from redistribution and towards improving performance – and that as a matter of urgency”, even if this meant that German and European citizens would have to make concessions.

Annual General Meeting resolutions

For the 2024 financial year, a dividend of €20 per share (2023: €15) was approved. The overall dividend payout amounts to about €2.6bn.

You can find all the other resolutions from today’s Annual General Meeting here.