Allianz Group in the third quarter of 2009

Operating profit increased by 23 percent to 1.9 billion euros

Property and Casualty insurance

In the Property and Casualty insurance business, gross premiums written amounted to 10.2 billion euros in the third quarter, compared to 10.8 billion euros in the same quarter of 2008. Adjusted for foreign currency and consolidation effects, revenues declined by 2.4 percent. Operating profit reached 1.0 billion euros, which represents the segment’s strongest quarter so far in 2009. Compared to the previous year’s third quarter, operating profit decreased by 18.2 percent. Germany, France, Italy and Credit Insurance were impacted by negative underwriting effects from the recession and an unusually high number of weather-related claims.

The combined ratio improved by 2 percentage points to 96.9 percent compared to 98.9 percent in the second quarter of 2009. It is slightly above the 96.5 percent of the previous year’s third quarter.

“We achieved a reasonable result in the Property and Casualty business, given the still challenging market environment, but the operating result is not yet satisfactory. Top-line development reflects our disciplined risk selection approach in all markets. We remain focused on our efforts to improve productivity in this segment. While pricing shows an upward trend, volumes remain challenged due to weaker demand and portfolio cleaning measures,” explained Oliver Bäte.

In Financial Services, quarterly revenues increased by 22.5 percent to 1.1 billion euros, compared to 0.9 billion euros in the previous year’s third quarter. Higher fee and commission income from the Asset Management business was the major driver behind the segment’s 14.0 percent internal revenue growth in the quarter.

Operating profit at 332 million euros almost doubled compared to 167 million euros in the third quarter of 2008. Asset Management was the main contributor to this development, while Banking contained set-up costs of 24 million euros for Allianz Bank in Germany.

In Asset Management, favorable capital markets and strong organic growth increased thirdparty assets under management by 65 billion euros in the third quarter of 2009 to a total of 878 billion euros, the highest level ever. This development was clearly driven by the strong performance of the fixed income business.

“Our Financial Services business had an outstanding quarter with the highest operating profit since the fourth quarter of 2007. An excellent cost-income-ratio of 59 percent underlines the high productivity of our Asset Management business. Combined with strong net inflows our Asset Management is performing at the top of the industry,” commented Oliver Bäte.