Paris:
French reinsurer SCOR on Wednesday announced the appointment of Jean-Paul Conoscente, currently CEO of Reinsurance at SCOR Global P&C, as Chief Executive Officer of SCOR Global P&C.
Jean-Paul Conoscente will also join the Group’s Executive Committee. This appointment is effective April 1, 2019.
This appointment follows Victor Peignet’s decision to retire for personal reasons, after 35 years with the SCOR group.
Denis Kessler, Chairman & Chief Executive Officer of SCOR, commented, “Victor has left a profound mark on the Group, he has shaped a culture that combines expertise and integrity, which the teams he has built will perpetuate. It has been a pleasure for me to work with him on the Group’s recovery and subsequent development, with total confidence and in perfect complicity.’’
“With his deputy CEO Laurent Rousseau, I know that Jean-Paul will continue Victor Peignet’s work successfully, while bringing his own vision to the SCOR Global P&C division and the wider Group,” he said.
A Franco-American, Jean Paul is a true P&C reinsurance professional.
Meanwhile SCOR’s group has posted a net income is EUR 322 million, up 12.6 percent for 2018, despite the cost of the nat cat events that occurred in Q3 and Q4.
The company reported gross written premiums of €15.2 billion in 2018, up 3.2 percent from €14.7 billion the previous year.
This growth is well balanced between the Life division (+7.3% at constant exchange rates) and the P&C division (+6.7% at constant exchange rates).
SCOR Global P&C also delivered a strong and managed growth combined with positive technical results despite a high number of natural catastrophes, Despite these natural catastrophes, the P&C division’s net combined ratio stands at 99.4%, an improvement from 103.7 percent in 2017.However, it could have been even better as the company said the measure was hit by a high frequency and severity of natural catastrophes including typhoons Jebi (€167 million) and Trami (€31 million), and in the US, hurricanes Michael (€125 million) and Florence (€60 million), as well as the Camp Wildfire (€110 million) and Woolsey Wildfire (€34 million) in California.
SCOR Global Life has delivered strong and profitable growth, driven by the successful development of the franchise in Asia-Pacific.
SCOR Global Investments has a return on invested assets of 2.8%, largely driven by a continuing increase in the income yield. SCOR Global Investments benefitted from realized gains of EUR 87 million from equity sales in Q4 2018.
The Group cost ratio is stable at 5.0% of gross written premiums, in line with the “Vision in Action” plan.
The company's return on equity (ROE) for the year is 5.5%, or 472 bps above the risk-free rate2. The normalized3 return on equity for the year is 9.4%, above the target of 800 bps above the 5-year risk-free rate.
Kessler commented: “In 2018 – a year once again marked by a high level of natural catastrophes – SCOR continues to grow: the Group delivers robust growth and solid recurring profitability, and provides a strong solvency position. For the first time the Group has recorded total gross premiums of more than EUR 15 billion. With our financial rating reaffirmed by all four rating agencies, we are now actively preparing the Group’s next strategic plan, which will be presented at the beginning of September.''