Allianz UK faces ‘unusual’ losses

Allianz UK’s Q3 results highlighted an ‘unusual number of large losses’ totalling £46m across its commercial property, fleet, liability and private car accounts.

It also revealed a current year impact of £17m from the Ogden Discount Rate reduction.

But despite the combined £63m hit during the first nine months of 2017, according to chief executive officer, John Dye, ‘it has not prevented the business from delivering a reasonable underwriting profit year to date.’

Gross written premiums for the business stood at £1647.1m (Q3 2016 £1614.8m) with operating profit for 2017 at £84.6m (Q3 2016 £121m). Combined operating ratio stood at 98.2%, compared with 96.9% in Q3 2016.

In a statement, Jon Dye said, ‘Revenue growth remains at a pleasing level and business retention is strong despite stiff competition in all the markets in which we compete. The quarter saw an unusual number of large losses totalling £46m across the commercial property, fleet, liability and private car accounts. This made for a challenging period but these events happen to insurers from time to time and should not be seen as the start of a trend.

‘The large losses in the quarter and the current year impact of £17m from the Ogden Discount Rate reduction have not prevented the business from delivering a reasonable underwriting profit year to date. This illustrates the financial benefit of a strong and diverse portfolio and our ongoing focus on delivering profitable growth.

‘The announcement of the joint venture with LV= has created a lot of positive interest. The European Commission has recently given its approval for the joint venture which is an important step forward. We now await the PRA’s approval scheduled for December with great anticipation.’

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