Munich Re beats profit target and increases dividend
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<p><strong>By: Munich Re</strong></p>
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<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">▪ Munich Re generated profits of €2.7bn in 2019, thus beating its original profit guidance by €200m </span></p>
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<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">▪ Dividend to increase to €9.80 per share, subject to the approval of the Supervisory Board and the Annual General Meeting </span></p>
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<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">▪ Share buy-backs to continue </span></p>
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<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">▪ January renewals show premium growth (+4.4%) and rising prices (+1.2%) </span></p>
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<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">▪ €217m profit in Q4 – good investment result, but very high major losses </span></p>
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<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">▪ Munich Re has joined the “Net-Zero Asset Owner Alliance”, and will ensure its investments are climate-neutral by 2050 </span></p>
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<blockquote class="wp-block-quote"><p><span style="font-weight: 400;"><strong><em>“A higher dividend, new share buy-back programme, and profits beating the guidance: Munich Re delivers. On our journey to make Munich Re more profitable, more lean and more digital, we took a great step forwards in 2019. With this strategic progress, I am confident that we will reach the profit target of €2.8bn for 2020 that we set out in our multi-year ambition for 2018–2020.”</em></strong> - </span><span style="font-weight: 400;"><strong>Joachim Wenning, Chairman of the Board of Management</strong> </span></p></blockquote>
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<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Summary of the figures for the 2019 financial year </span><span style="font-weight: 400;">Munich Re generated a profit of €2,707m (2,275m)</span><span style="font-weight: 400;"> </span><span style="font-weight: 400;">in the 2019 financial year, and €217m (238m) in Q4. The operating result was up on the previous year to €4,004m (3,725m), and the other non-operating result amounted to –€665m (–639m). The currency result totalled €73m (–39m); the tax ratio was 15.1%. Gross premiums written increased by 4.9% year on year to €51,457m.</span></p>
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<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">At €30,576m, equity was significantly up on the level at the start of the year (€26,500m), due in particular to the good consolidated result and the increase in valuation reserves on fixed- interest securities and equities. The solvency ratio was around 237% at the end of the year (31.12.2018: 245%). </span></p>
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<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The balance sheet shows an annualised return on equity (RoE) of 9.2% in 2019. </span></p>
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<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Under its share buy-back programme, Munich Re repurchased 4.3 million of its shares in 2019, with a total value of €1.0bn.</span></p>
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