On Tuesday, German reinsurer Munich Re announced a higher-than-expected dividend increase after its 2023 annual results were broadly in line with expectations.

The Bavarian group, the world's number one in its sector, said it would pay a coupon of 15 euros per share for the 2023 financial year, up 29.3% on 2022 and ahead of analysts' expectations

A 1.004 million euros, its fourth-quarter net profit slightly exceeded consensus (980 million euros), while its full-year profit of 4.6 billion euros exceeded the 4.5 billion euro target it had set itself.

Its combined ratio, a key measure of profitability in the insurance industry, deteriorated to 85.2%, compared with 83.2% at the end of 2022.

Munich Re, which considers itself well-equipped to cope with the new threats posed by extreme weather events and cyber-attacks, confirmed its forecast of a net profit of around five billion euros for the current financial year as a whole.

Despite this, Munich Re shares were down 0.4% late Tuesday morning on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange.

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