Allianz confirms it is aiming for €10.5bn for 2016, give or take €500m
Allianz today confirmed its operating profit outlook of approximately €10.5bn (£8.3bn) for 2016, after experiencing what it called a strong start to the year.
"The first quarter represented a great start to the year," said Dieter Wemmer, finance chief of Allianz SE. "We are well on our way towards achieving our operating profit target in the range of €10.5bn, plus or minus €500m for the entire year."
The German insurer also confirmed its results highlights today, which it had already reported in an earlier statement at the start of the month. Net income had risen to €2.2bn for the three months ended March 2016, up 20.5 per cent from €1.8bn the year before.
However, revenue had fallen to €35.4bn, down 6.4 per cent from €37.8bn, while operating profit had dropped to €2.8bn, down 3.5 per cent from €2.9bn.
The company pinned some of the fall in revenue on lower premiums in its life and health segment of its Taiwan-based business. Allianz announced yesterday that it has agreed to sell a life insurance portfolio of Allianz Taiwan Life to Taiwan Life Insurance, adding in a statement that, thanks to the constraints of Solvency II, Taiwan Life Insurance would be in a "better position to effectively manage the affected life insurance contracts".
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Performance in the company's asset management division was revealed to have declined particularly sharply, with operating profits falling by 16.5 per cent to €463m, while operating revenues dropped by 11.8 per cent to €1.4bn.
"Although we anticipate a challenging environment for the asset management industry, we continue to expect positive net flows at Pimco [Pacific Investment Management Company, an investment management company owned by Allianz] in the second half of the year, alongside steady net inflows at Allianz Global Investors," Wemmer remarked.
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Investors, however, were not so optimistic. At time of writing, shares in the company were trading down 1.8 per cent at €139.20.