(Reuters) – Spain’s largest insurer Mapfre said on Tuesday its net profit rose 39% in first nine months of the year as higher prices and more benign weather and less severe natural disasters lifted its non-life business’ profitability.
The firm’s net profit jumped to 654 million euros ($803.80 million) on 21.62 billion euros in premiums.
Non-Life combined ratio = the industry’s key profitability measure – has improved by 2 percentage points, settling at 94.8%. This favourable shift is attributed to premium increases on insurance policies and fewer and less severe natural disasters as a result of more benign weather. A devastating earthquake in Turkey in early 2023 had cost the company more than 100 million euros in the first half of last year.
Mapfre also recorded a 90 million-euro accounting loss on the writedown of the value of Verti Germany, its auto insurance unit.
The company had already booked a 75 million euro writedown on its car insurance business last year in the U.S. where prices of cars and car parts were rising faster than insurance premiums.
($1 = 0.9250 euros)
