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Global reinsurance giant Swiss Re disclosed that it anticipates losses from the January 2025 wildfires in Los Angeles, California will be below $700 million, while also reporting strong growth at the January renewal season for its property and casualty reinsurance business.
Swiss Re saw its group net income rise to $3.24 billion for full-year 2024, a slight increase on the $3.14 billion generated in 2023.
It resulted in a 15% return on equity (ROE) for the reinsurance company last year, which was slightly down on 2023’s 16.2%.
Group insurance revenues reached a new high of almost $45.6 billion for the year in 2024, up from the almost $43.9 billion of 2023.
All this despite the meaningful reserve strengthening previously announced after Q3 2024 for US liability exposures, which dented the result.
Swiss Re’s Group Chief Executive Officer Andreas Berger commented “Our focus in 2024 was on profitability and resilience. Our results for the period reflect this and show that we are on the right track: we have delivered strong net income and ROE, while achieving our goal of positioning overall P&C reserves at the higher end of our best-estimate range.”
Swiss Re’s Group Chief Financial Officer John Dacey added, “The strong underlying Business Unit performance is being supported by continued underwriting discipline and recurring investment income. The Group’s earnings power, combined with the reserving actions taken in 2024, give us confidence to increase the pay-out to investors by proposing an 8%
higher ordinary dividend of USD 7.35 per share.”
Swiss Re’s P&C Reinsurance division delivered net income of $1.2 billion for the full-year 2024, down on 2023’s $1.5 billion by around 20%, due to the aforementioned US casualty reserving actions.
But, even with large natural catastrophe losses of $1 billion for last year, the P&C Re division at Swiss Re still reported an 89.7% combined ratio for 2024.
As a group, Swiss Re also experienced a further $344 million of large nat cat losses in its Corporate Solutions division in 2024.
Targeted growth was a feature of Swiss Re’s 2024, with natural catastrophe and property reinsurance business volumes both increasing during the year.
Which has now continued at the January 2025 renewal season, as Swiss Re reported a 7% increase in reveal premium volumes to $13.3 billion for its P&C Re business at 1/1.
In addition, P&C Re achieved a price increase of 2.8% at the January 2025 reinsurance renewals.
Diving into the details of Swiss Re’s renewal, the reinsurer said that it adopted 4.2% higher loss assumptions, which are reflective of its prudent view on inflation and loss model updates, especially in casualty risks.
The company said that its strong renewal portfolio quality and a net price change of -1.5% remain supportive of a combined ratio target of below 85% for 2025.
There was around $500 million of business premiums that Swiss Re opted to non-renew at 1/1, as well as $900 million of new business secured.
Natural catastrophe premium volumes renewed rose by 2%, while property premium volumes soared 28% at the renewal season, while the strongest regional growth was in the EMEA at 11% and Americas at 4%.
For 2025, Swiss Re has adopted a large nat cat loss budget of $2 billion.
Obviously, the Los Angeles, California wildfires in January 2025 have taken an early bite out of the catastrophe budget for the current calendar year.
Swiss Re disclosed that it anticipates its losses from the LA wildfires will be below $700 million, impacting the first-quarter Group results.
The reinsurance company has based its estimate on an industry loss estimate of approximately $40 billion for the California wildfire event.
Looking ahead, Swiss Re targets $4.4 billion of group net income for 2025, ROE of above 14% and a P&C combined ratio of below 85%.
It’s testament to the strength of these global reinsurance businesses that they can come out with strong full-year targets even after a catastrophic event like the wildfires so early in the year.
CEO Andreas Berger further stated, “All our businesses have started 2025 in a strong position, thanks to the resilient foundation we have created and disciplined underwriting as evidenced by the successful January renewals. We remain focused on delivering on our targets for the year and reaching our cost efficiency goals.”
Swiss Re says LA wildfire loss below $700m, grows P&C Re 7% at Jan renewal was published by: www.Artemis.bm
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This content is copyright to www.artemis.bm and should not appear anywhere else, or an infringement has occurred.
Global reinsurance giant Swiss Re disclosed that it anticipates losses from the January 2025 wildfires in Los Angeles, California will be below $700 million, while also reporting strong growth at the January renewal season for its property and casualty reinsurance business.
Swiss Re saw its group net income rise to $3.24 billion for full-year 2024, a slight increase on the $3.14 billion generated in 2023.
It resulted in a 15% return on equity (ROE) for the reinsurance company last year, which was slightly down on 2023’s 16.2%.
Group insurance revenues reached a new high of almost $45.6 billion for the year in 2024, up from the almost $43.9 billion of 2023.
All this despite the meaningful reserve strengthening previously announced after Q3 2024 for US liability exposures, which dented the result.
Swiss Re’s Group Chief Executive Officer Andreas Berger commented “Our focus in 2024 was on profitability and resilience. Our results for the period reflect this and show that we are on the right track: we have delivered strong net income and ROE, while achieving our goal of positioning overall P&C reserves at the higher end of our best-estimate range.”
Swiss Re’s Group Chief Financial Officer John Dacey added, “The strong underlying Business Unit performance is being supported by continued underwriting discipline and recurring investment income. The Group’s earnings power, combined with the reserving actions taken in 2024, give us confidence to increase the pay-out to investors by proposing an 8%
higher ordinary dividend of USD 7.35 per share.”
Swiss Re’s P&C Reinsurance division delivered net income of $1.2 billion for the full-year 2024, down on 2023’s $1.5 billion by around 20%, due to the aforementioned US casualty reserving actions.
But, even with large natural catastrophe losses of $1 billion for last year, the P&C Re division at Swiss Re still reported an 89.7% combined ratio for 2024.
As a group, Swiss Re also experienced a further $344 million of large nat cat losses in its Corporate Solutions division in 2024.
Targeted growth was a feature of Swiss Re’s 2024, with natural catastrophe and property reinsurance business volumes both increasing during the year.
Which has now continued at the January 2025 renewal season, as Swiss Re reported a 7% increase in reveal premium volumes to $13.3 billion for its P&C Re business at 1/1.
In addition, P&C Re achieved a price increase of 2.8% at the January 2025 reinsurance renewals.
Diving into the details of Swiss Re’s renewal, the reinsurer said that it adopted 4.2% higher loss assumptions, which are reflective of its prudent view on inflation and loss model updates, especially in casualty risks.
The company said that its strong renewal portfolio quality and a net price change of -1.5% remain supportive of a combined ratio target of below 85% for 2025.
There was around $500 million of business premiums that Swiss Re opted to non-renew at 1/1, as well as $900 million of new business secured.
Natural catastrophe premium volumes renewed rose by 2%, while property premium volumes soared 28% at the renewal season, while the strongest regional growth was in the EMEA at 11% and Americas at 4%.
For 2025, Swiss Re has adopted a large nat cat loss budget of $2 billion.
Obviously, the Los Angeles, California wildfires in January 2025 have taken an early bite out of the catastrophe budget for the current calendar year.
Swiss Re disclosed that it anticipates its losses from the LA wildfires will be below $700 million, impacting the first-quarter Group results.
The reinsurance company has based its estimate on an industry loss estimate of approximately $40 billion for the California wildfire event.
Looking ahead, Swiss Re targets $4.4 billion of group net income for 2025, ROE of above 14% and a P&C combined ratio of below 85%.
It’s testament to the strength of these global reinsurance businesses that they can come out with strong full-year targets even after a catastrophic event like the wildfires so early in the year.
CEO Andreas Berger further stated, “All our businesses have started 2025 in a strong position, thanks to the resilient foundation we have created and disciplined underwriting as evidenced by the successful January renewals. We remain focused on delivering on our targets for the year and reaching our cost efficiency goals.”
Swiss Re says LA wildfire loss below $700m, grows P&C Re 7% at Jan renewal was published by: www.Artemis.bm
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