The French reinsurer Scor published a net loss of 80 million euros for the first quarter on Friday, affected by the war in Ukraine, the Covid-19 pandemic and a “very high” level of natural disasters.
The first quarter of 2022 was marked by a series of exceptional events, both in property and casualty reinsurance and in life reinsurance, which had a negative impact on our financial performance, acknowledges Chief Executive Officer Laurent Rousseau, quoted in a communicated
The company, whose activity consists of insuring insurers, has in particular provisioned an amount of 85 million euros for the conflict in Ukraine.
Added to this is the burden of drought in Brazil, storms in Europe, floods in Australia and an earthquake in Japan, the company specifies, as well as that of the Covid-19 pandemic which is continues with the spread of the Omicron variant, leading to significant excess mortality, particularly in the United States.
The group had already experienced a quarter in the red last year: it suffered a net loss of 41 million euros from July to September due to a series of large-scale natural disasters, including floods in Europe and the Hurricane Ida.
He had warned the market on April 15 of a potential loss in the first quarter of 2022.
The (re)insurance industry seems to be facing increasingly frequent shocks and increasingly diffuse and protean threats, judged the former CEO, now only president of the company, Denis Kessler.
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Gross premiums placed, equivalent to turnover, also increased by 9.7% at constant exchange rates in the first quarter compared to the same period in 2021, 4.71 billion euros.
This quarter comes after an honorable 2021 financial year for Scor. The company had announced on February 24 an annual net profit of 456 million euros, linked in particular to the peace agreement reached at the end of June with the insurer Cova, better known to the general public under its brands MMA, MAAF and GMF.
Despite this poor start to the year, Scor will indeed propose to its shareholders’ general meeting a dividend of 1.80 euros per share, as announced at the start of the year.