Allianz Group continued its successful course from 2012 with a strong first quarter in 2013. All key indicators rose over the reporting period.
With 32.0 billion euros Allianz achieved the highest quarterly total revenues in its history, an increase of 6.6 percent from 30.1 billion euros in the first quarter of 2012. Operating profit grew 19.9 percent in the first quarter to 2.8 billion euros from 2.3 billion euros the year before.
All three business segments contributed to the growth in revenues and operating profit. Property and Casualty insurance benefited in most regions from rising prices and an improved underwriting result as well as a benign natural catastrophe environment. In Life and Health insurance, revenues and profits grew especially in the life insurance business in the Allianz core markets France, Germany and Italy. Asset Management continued its successful development, achieving another excellent quarter with high net inflows.
Allianz's capital position also remained strong in the reporting period. The conglomerate solvency ratio decreased by 14 percentage points to 183 percent on March 31, 2013, from 197 percent on December 31, 2012. Excluding the negative impact of a change in accounting for pensions, the solvency ratio would have strengthened 2 percentage points over the year-end figure. Over the same period, shareholders' equity increased 3.1 percent to 51.950 billion euros from 50.388 billion euros. With reference to the good capitalization of Allianz, in March 2013 the rating agency Standard & Poor's confirmed its "AA" rating and raised its outlook to "stable" from"negative".
The result from non-operating items fell to minus 119 million euros from minus 88 million euros in the same period of 2012. The previous year's figure benefited from positive valuation effects from The Hartford warrants. Income taxes rose to 877 million euros from 794 million euros. The effective tax rate for the first quarter of 2013 was 33 percent compared to 35 percent in the year before. Net income attributable to shareholders reached 1.7 billion euros in the first quarter of 2013, a year-on-year increase of 24.0 percent from 1.4 billion euros.
"This is a very encouraging start to the year. All segments are performing strongly thanks to our efforts in the previous years. Our customers profit as well, having received 25 billion euros in insurance benefits in the first quarter," said Dieter Wemmer, Chief Financial Officer of Allianz SE.
"We are well positioned to grow both internally and externally. For example, with the agreed acquisition of the Turkish insurer Yapı Kredi Sigorta, we expect to significantly strengthen our position in this important developing market," said Michael Diekmann, CEO of Allianz SE. "We are confident that we will continue to grow profitably during the rest of 2013. However, in view of the existing market risks and a possible higher level of natural catastrophes, it would be inappropriate to simply annualize the current quarter's operating profit. Therefore, we confirm our operating profit outlook for 2013 of 9.2 billion euros plus or minus 0.5 billion euros."