FRANKFURT (Reuters) – Allianz reported a bigger-than-expected 23% drop in second-quarter net profit on Friday due to market volatility and restructuring costs, but confirmed its full-year target.
Despite declining profits, the quarter marks a return to normal for the German insurer. In recent months, Allianz has been confronted with a case of fraud within one of its asset management subsidiaries in the United States, which resulted in a settlement of 6 billion dollars (5.87 billion euros) in May.
The group reported net profit, group share, of 1.706 billion euros in the quarter ended June 30, against 2.225 billion euros the previous year, missing the consensus established at 1.846 billion euros. euros.
The target of an operating profit for 2022 of between 12.4 billion and 14.4 billion euros nevertheless remains intact, the company said.
“We are well positioned to manage the impact of high inflation and economic pressures which are particularly evident in Europe,” said CEO Oliver Baete.
Market volatility weighed on Allianz during the quarter, prompting it to pass an impairment charge of 282 million euros and also contributing to a 12% decline in operating profit at its life and health division.
Analysts at Jefferies, which recommends Allianz as a “buy”, noted that the company’s non-operating losses and costs “were much higher than expected” and called the results “mixed”.
(Report Tom Sims and Alexander Huebner; French version Alizée Degorce, editing by Kate Entringer)
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