Swiss Re ended the year 2018 with a net profit of 421 million USD against 331 million USD in 2017. This performance is below the expectations of the beginning of the year which targeted a net profit of 608 million USD.
Gross premiums rose by 4.7% to reach 36.41 billion USD. The company's shareholder's equity amounted to 27.93 billion USD, down by 16% over one year.
The year 2018 was difficult for the Zurich reinsurer who faced high natural catastrophes and man-made losses reaching 3 billion USD.
With a combined ratio of 104%, the property and casualty activity improved by 7.5 points compared to 2017. Despite this high ratio, non life insurance ended the year with a profit worth 370 million USD. The life and health reinsurance yielded a positive result of 761 million USD.
However, despite these mixed results, the group proposed to its shareholders a dividend of 5.68 USD per share, up by 60 cents compared to 2017. Swiss Re will also set up a share buy-back programme in two tranches of 1 billion USD each.
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