Articles by Oliver Suess

AXA H1 Net Income Rises 4% to $3.6B as L&H Earnings Offset Cat Losses

AXA SA, France’s biggest insurer, said first-half profit rose 4 percent as increased earnings from life and health insurance helped offset higher claims from natural catastrophes. Net income climbed to 3.2 billion euros ($3.6 billion) from 3.1 billion euros a …

Swiss Re Q2 Profit Drops on Higher Natural Catastrophe Losses

Swiss Re AG, the world’s biggest reinsurer, said profit fell in the second-quarter as the company paid more for catastrophe claims including earthquakes in Japan and forest fires in Canada. Net income declined to $637 million from $820 million a …

Europe Insurers’ Stress Tests Could Lead to Higher Capital Requirements

European insurers, whose profits are being eroded by Mario Draghi’s* quantitative easing program, face a stress test headache that risks requiring them to set aside more capital, further hurting their ability to make money. The timing of the regulator’s “stress …

Allianz Set to Begin $3.3B Asia Property Push over Next 3 Years

Allianz Real Estate is set to make its biggest Asian investment to date, in a first step toward adding as much 3 billion euros ($3.3 billion) of real estate in the region within three years. The $150 million pan-Asian fund …

European Insurers Look to Hoarding Cash After Brexit Vote

Investors will consider hoarding cash in vaults as government bond yields fall deeper into negative territory following the U.K.’s vote to leave the European Union, according to Talanx AG, Germany’s third-biggest insurer. “Storing physical cash as an alternative to paying …

Zurich’s New CEO Greco Reorganizes Company, Simplifying Structure

Zurich Insurance AG’s new chief executive officer, Mario Greco, is shaking up the largest Swiss insurer after an unexpected jump in claims last year forced it to abandon a takeover and prompted his predecessor’s exit. Zurich is merging its biggest …

Update: German Flood Claims Estimated at $1.1B, Says Fitch Ratings

Insurers will face higher-than-expected claims related to floods in Germany, according to Fitch Ratings, dealing another blow to an industry squeezed by low interest rates and decreasing prices for policies. Claims linked to torrential rain, thunderstorms and floods that hit …

Update: Flash Floods Hit SE Germany, Killing at Least 8; AIR Worldwide Comments

Torrential rain, thunderstorms and flash floods that have inundated towns in southeastern Germany in recent days took the death toll to at least eight as forecasters warned of continuing severe weather spreading northward and westward into France. Five people drowned …

Munich Re to Spend $1.1B by 2020 to Restructure Primary Insurance Unit

Munich Re, the world’s second-biggest reinsurer, plans to spend 1 billion euros ($1.1 billion) by 2020 restructuring operations at its loss-making primary insurance unit in Germany. The plan for ERGO’s German operations includes cutting 1,835 jobs, or about 13 percent …

Allianz Asset Management Hit by PIMCO Outflows, Although Reversal Expected

Allianz Asset Management reported a 17 percent decline in first-quarter earnings as investors continued to withdraw money from its Pacific Investment Management Co. unit 19 months after the ouster of Chief Investment Officer Bill Gross. Operating profit at Allianz Asset …