After making a net profit of 727 million USD at the end of 2019, Swiss Re [4] recorded a net loss of 878 million USD as at 31 December 2020. The Covid-19 crisis has significantly impacted the reinsurer's results.
The pandemic costs (compensation and reserves) as at 31 December 2020 amount to 3.9 billion USD divided among the group’s different activities:
- 1.9 billion USD for the Property & Casualty (P&C) activity
- 999 million USD for the Life and Health (L&H) class of business
- 943 million USD for the direct insurance entity Corporate Solutions
- 27 million USD for the Life Capital unit
The gross written premiums reached 42.951 billion USD against 42.228 billion USD recorded in 2019: an increase of 1.7%.
The company's shareholder’s equity degraded from 29.251 billion USD in 2019 to 27.135 billion USD in 2020, a decrease of 7.2%. The return on equity (ROE) was established at -3.1% in 2020 compared to 2.5% in 2019.
A dividend of 6.3 USD per share is to be proposed at the annual general meeting to be held on 16 April 2021.