The reinsurer Scor continued to raise the bar in the third quarter, with a net profit of 147 million euros according to its figures published Friday, a result however below expectations and which earned it sanction on the stock market.
Analysts surveyed by Bloomberg were counting on around 170 million euros in profit. Those from Jefferies said they were owed in a note.
Scor’s stock lost 8.07% to 25.75 euros around 9:40 a.m. on the Paris Stock Exchange, erasing its gains recorded since July.
The gap between analysts’ expectations and the result published by Scor comes from a strategic choice of prudence, justified the financial director and deputy general director François de Varenne during a press conference.
The damage and liability (P&C) activity, also affected by the cost of the August Hawa fires, indeed benefited from additional provisions.
The results over nine months confirm Scor’s determination to achieve its objectives, underlined in a press release the general director Thierry Lger, who arrived at the beginning of May after the ouster of his predecessor Laurent Rousseau and shortly before the death of the company’s emblematic president Denis. Kessler, in June.
The company, whose activity consists of insuring insurers, unveiled on September 7 a strategic plan for 2024 to 2026 focused on the growth of the economic value (sum of equity and expected future profits) of the company.
With a third quarter in the green, unlike the same period last year, Scor’s net profit amounts to 650 million euros since the start of the year. This is more than in 2021 (+456 million euros) and without comparison with the net loss of 301 million euros recorded last year.
Gross insurance revenues, the new equivalent of turnover after a change in accounting standards for the sector that took place on January 1, increased by 10.2% year-on-year in the third quarter at constant exchange rates, to $4.24 billion. ‘euros.
The combined ratio, a key indicator which relates the amount of premiums collected to disbursements made, rose to 90.2% for the property and liability business between July and September.
A ratio greater than 100% means that the company is losing money and that the activity is not profitable.
Scor is also engaged in an arbitration procedure with the French insurer Cova (MMA, Maaf, GMF), echo of the second’s abortive takeover attempt on the first in 2018.
The disagreement, mentioned in the report on the solvency and financial situation 2022 of the entity Cova Cooperations, concerns one of the clauses of their peace agreement of June 2021, the acquisition by Cova of 30% of the reinsurance program carried by Scor based in Ireland, which is particularly expensive.
Recalling that this arbitration procedure was not unusual, Mr. Lger indicated during a press conference that Cova was a very good client and that he hoped to put this episode behind (him) as quickly as possible.