Allianz reaffirms business forecasts despite profit fall

May 4, 2011, 10:36 GMT

Munich - Europe's biggest insurer Allianz reaffirmed on Wednesday its full-year earnings forecast despite reporting a 44-per- cent drop in first-quarter profit.

The Munich-based company said net profit in the first three months of the year came in at about 900 million euros (1.3 billion dollars) compared to 1.6 billion euros in the same period last year.

Total revenue fell to nearly 30 billion euros from 30.57 billion euros in the same quarter a year earlier, the company said.

Allianz released the results as its shareholders gathered in Munich for the company's annual general meeting.

'Although we spent about 200 million euros more on natural catastrophes than in the same quarter of the previous year, we were able to keep our operating profit close to the previous year's level,' said Allianz Chief Executive Michael Diekmann.

'This is testimony to the broad-based nature of our business portfolio. We are on track to achieve our operating profit target for 2011,' he said.

First-quarter operating profit came in at about 1.7 billion euros, compared with last year's 1.73 billion euros.

Allianz said it expects its bill for natural disasters to total about 750 million euros in the first quarter. This includes about 320 million euros for the earthquake and tsunami, which hit Japan in March.

In addition to the series of crises that have engulfed Japan, the world's insurers have been by claims for a string of natural disasters including floods and a hurricane in northern Australia as well as a severe earthquake in New Zealand.

The company expects to post an operating profit of between 7.5 billion euros to 8.5 billion euros this year after reporting 8.2 billion euros in 2010.

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