The insurer Covéa (MAAF, MMA and GMF) relied last year on its reinsurer PartnerRe to achieve a record net profit of 1.5 billion euros (+65%), the group announced on Friday, the performance of this subsidiary acquired in 2022, compensating for the poor performance of other businesses.
This strategy which consists (…) in particular of balancing cycles which are by nature (…) different between insurance and reinsurance has worked completely correctly this year 2023, declared during a press conference the director General of Cova, Thierry Derez.
The acquisition of PartnerRe, finalized during the summer of 2022, for an amount of 7.9 billion euros, also explains the increase in Cova’s turnover, from 22.7 billion euros in 2022 to a new record. of 26.8 billion euros in 2023 (+18%).
This is the first complete exercise of deployment of Cova’s strategy, underlined Mr. Derez, since for the first time in 2023 the presence of PartnerRe within the group extended over the entire financial year.
In detail, PartnerRe’s net profit group share amounted to 1.47 billion euros last year, more or less the net profit of the entire group.
The reinsurance activity benefited in 2023 from a favorable pricing plan market and controlled losses, indicated the group’s financial director, Maud Petit, as well as a specific tax provision linked to the fact that the company is based in the Bermuda.
Reinsurance compensates for the lower performance of the group’s activities in France via the MAAF, MMA and GMF networks, whose net income fell last year by 18%, to 638 million euros, weighed down by the cost of climate losses and the increase the cost of repairs, particularly in automobiles.
The contribution of PartnerRe also makes it possible to absorb several of Cova’s loss-making businesses: its historic reinsurance business (Cova Cooperations) as well as its international businesses, in the United Kingdom and the United States.
The insurer also announced that it was aiming to return to balance in this first market and was drawing a line under the second, with its local subsidiary CSE no longer underwriting new business.
Mr. Derez also refused to make any comments on the indictments of several insurance figures suspected of having participated in an operation aimed at sabotaging Cova’s takeover of PartnerRe, including the general director of the mutualist network Ama Groupe (Macif , Aesio…) Adrien Couret and the founder of Cova Jean-Claude Seys