S&P Global Market Intelligence offers our top picks of insurance news stories and more published throughout the week.
Bottom lines
* Swiss Life Holding AG reported full-year 2017 unaudited net profit attributable to equity holders of the company of CHF1.01 billion, up from CHF922 million in 2016. CEO Patrick Frost said the high cost of entry has deterred the insurer from entering the Swiss nonlife insurance market, but he added that the trend toward digitization may bring the cost down.
* U.K.-based Admiral Group Plc announced plans to set up a unit in Spain as it reported full-year 2017 consolidated after-tax profit attributable to equity holders of the parent of £334.2 million, up from £222.2 million a year earlier.
* Direct Line Insurance Group Plc reported full-year 2017 consolidated profit attributable to owners of the company of £434.0 million, up 55.7% from £278.8 million earned a year ago. The British insurer's total dividend for 2017 was 35.4 pence per share, up from 24.6 pence per share in 2016.
* U.K.-based Jardine Lloyd Thompson Group Plc announced a reorganization of its business as it reported preliminary full-year 2017 profit attributable to owners of the parent of £118.4 million, up from £81.5 million a year ago. The insurer's senior executives defended the restructuring, which will incur £45 million of one-off costs and is likely to result in job cuts, with CEO Dominic Burke saying the program was designed to ensure that the company could take advantage of opportunities to grow.
* UNIQA Insurance Group AG reported fourth-quarter 2017 pretax profit of €60.8 million, down from €76.7 million earned in the same period in 2016. For full year 2017, the Austria-based group reported pretax profit of €242.2 million, up from €225.5 million in 2016.
* Denmark's Alm. Brand A/S, Germany's MLP SE, the U.K.'s St. James's Place Plc and Ireland's FBD Holdings Plc also reported full-year 2017 results during the week.
M&A buzz
* British mutual insurer Equitable Life Assurance Society has mandated Goldman Sachs to examine a potential sale of the company. CEO Chris Wiscarson reportedly said that the sale process is part of a wider review of the business as it aims to boost returns to its more than 300,000 policyholders.
* Australia's QBE Insurance Group Ltd. is selling its Latin America operations to Zurich Insurance Group AG for an aggregate price of US$409 million, with the sale to include businesses in Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador and Mexico.
* JSC VTB Bank CFO Herbert Moos reportedly said that negotiations to sell the bank's insurance unit, VTB Insurance Ltd., to Russian insurer JSC SOGAZ were not successful and the sale of the unit is currently not being considered.
* Russia's Khanty-Mansiysk Autonomous Area reportedly announced an auction to sell OJSC State Insurance Co. Yugoria, with the minimum asking price for the company set at 2.89 billion Russian rubles.
* Insr Insurance Group ASA received permission for its merger with fellow Norwegian insurer NEMI Forsikring ASA, with the legal merger expected to be completed early in the second quarter.
Done deals
* Jardine Lloyd Thompson Group acquired U.S.-based specialist trade credit and political risk broker International Risk Consultants (IRC) for $25 million.
* France's AXA completed its acquisition of U.S.-based digital health benefit administration firm Maestro Health Inc.
* Germany's Allianz SE, through Sri Lanka-based unit Allianz Insurance Lanka Ltd., completed the acquisition of Janashakthi Insurance PLC subsidiary Janashakthi General Insurance Ltd. for 16.39 billion Sri Lankan rupees.
Executive appointments
* Prudential Plc appointed James Turner as its new chief risk officer, replacing Pat Casey, who will retire from the company.
* Aon Plc named Dominic Christian as global chairman of Aon Benfield and Julie Page as CEO of Aon UK Ltd.
In other news
* Two pending personal injury reforms in the U.K. could slash a combined £80 from the average motor insurance premium in the second half of 2018, according to Admiral Group CEO David Stevens.
* Italian postal service Poste Italiane SpA unveiled a five-year strategic plan that includes achieving a compound annual growth rate of 13% in net profit to about €1.2 billion in 2022 from about €700 million in 2017.
* Zurich-based catastrophe insurance data provider PERILS AG' initial loss estimate for extratropical cyclone Friederike, which hit the British Isles, Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany on Jan. 17 and Jan. 18, came in at €1.47 billion.
Featured during the week in S&P Global Market Intelligence
UK's Direct Line in VW deal as insurers fret carmakers could leave them stranded: The insurer signed a letter of intent to become the U.K. insurance partner for the German automotive manufacturer for at least five years.
QBE Europe CEO warns of inflation hit to insurers: Higher inflation could hit insurers' underwriting profits and is making companies more wary about the casualty risk they are assuming, QBE European Operations CEO Richard Pryce said.
