Alm. Brand A/S posted a year-over-year decline in first-quarter profit and lifted its pretax profit guidance for full year 2018 by 50 million Danish kroner to between 500 million kroner and 600 million kroner.
The Danish financial services company said the overall group guidance takes into account a negative effect of 70 million kroner from a potential reduction of the volatility adjustment premium.
For the first quarter, Alm. Brand reported an after-tax profit of 179 million kroner, down from the year-ago 214 million kroner. EPS for the period fell to 1.1 kroner from 1.3 kroner a year earlier.
The combined ratio, a measure of underwriting profitability, was 83.4% in the quarter, owing to low weather-related and major claims expenses, better-than-expected claims and positive run-off gains.
The profit guidance for its nonlife insurance segment was raised by 100 million kroner to 540 million kroner, while that of the life insurance segment was lifted by 10 million kroner to 80 million kroner. The guidance for the company's bank and other group activities were unchanged.
As of May 17, US$1 was equivalent to 6.31 Danish kroner.
