Munich:
Munich Re on Tuesday said in the first quarter of 2020,its property-casualty reinsurance segment saw a considerable claims burden from losses in connection with the effects of the significantly worsened COVID-19 crisis. The claims expenditure is due mainly to the cancellation and postponement of large events.
Owing to the great uncertainty concerning the macroeconomic and financial impacts of COVID-19, from today’s perspective – and assuming a burden from major man-made and natural-catastrophe losses that is otherwise in line with expectations – Munich Re will not attain its profit guidance of €2.8bn for 2020 as a whole.
Hence, even though work on the quarterly accounts has just begun, Munich Re only anticipates profits in the low three-digit million euro range for the first three months of 2020 (Q1 2019: €633m).Even after the impacts of capital-market and loss developments,
Munich Re’s solvency ratio is still comfortably within the communicated optimal range of 175–220% of the requirement.
The proposal to the Annual General Meeting on 29 April remains unchanged: that the dividend be increased to €9.80 per share
Implementation of the 2020/2021 share buy-back programme announced on 26 February 2020, however, will be discontinued until further notice and until there is greater clarity both on the actual burdens arising from COVID-19 and on capital requirements for potential organic or inorganic business opportunities.