Hannover Re: 2020’s results

Hannover Re has ended the year 2020 with a turnover of 24.765 billion EUR (30.417 billion USD) compared to 22.598 billion EUR (25.3 billion USD) posted in 2019 i.e an increase of 9.6%.

However, the German reinsurer’s net profit decreased by 31.2% : from 1.284 billion EUR (1.43 billion USD) in 2019 to 883 million EUR (1.084 billion USD) as of 31 December 2020.

The operating result amounted to 1.214 billion EUR (1.491 billion USD) in 2020 in comparison with 1.853 billion EUR (2.07 billion USD) a year earlier that is a decline of 34.5%. The Covid-19 related losses alone reached 1.2 billion EUR (1.4 billion USD).

As of 31 December 2020, the P&C activity recorded a net result of 620.3 million EUR (761.8 million USD), decreasing by 28.8%. This drop is mainly due to Covid-19 losses and disasters which amounted respectively to 950 million EUR (1.16 billion USD) and 644.8 million EUR (792 million USD). Consequently, the combined ratio went from 98.2% in 2019 to 101.6% in 2020.

The health crisis has also impacted the group's life and health classes of business, with 261.1 million EUR (320.695 million USD) of losses in 2020, the majority of which is due to excess deaths in the United States. The activity reported a 31.4% decrease in the net result to 323.3 million EUR (397 million USD).

The company's shareholder’s equity grew from 10.528 billion EUR (11.78 billion USD) in 2019 to 10.995 billion EUR (13.5 billion USD) in 2020. The return on equity was established at 8.2% against 13.3% in 2019.

The group will propose a dividend of 4.5 EUR (5.5 USD) per share to shareholders, compared with 4 EUR (4.4 USD) in 2019.

For 2021, Hannover Re expects a net income ranging between 1.15 billion EUR (1.3 billion USD) and 1.25 billion EUR (1.49 billion USD).