March 4 (SeeNews) - Slovenia's biggest insurer Zavarovalnica Triglav [LJE:ZVTG] said on Monday its 2018 unaudited pre-tax profit rose 15% on the year to 97.5 million euro ($110.8 million).
The group’s consolidated gross written insurance, co-insurance and reinsurance premiums increased 7% on the year to 1,068 million euro in 2018, Triglav said in a filing to the Ljubljana bourse.
In terms of individual insurance segments, an 8% rate of premium growth was seen in non-life insurance, a 2% increase in life insurance and an 11% rise in health insurance.
The profit before tax was planned between 80 and 90 million euro in 2018, but that was outperformed mainly thanks to the high premium growth, favourable claim ratio and several one-off events, which mostly occurred in fourth quarter of 2018, Andrej Slapar, president of the management board of Zavarovalnica Triglav, said.
In 2018, Triglav group increased the share of premium written in the markets outside of Slovenia by 0.2 percentage point to 17.9%. A total of 76.7% of consolidated gross written premium was charged in the Slovene insurance market, whilst reinsurance premium on the international markets accounted for 5.4%, the statement noted.
The highest premium growth rate of 12% was recorded on the Serbian market, followed by the 8% growth in Croatia, 5% in Montenegro, 3% in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and 10% in North Macedonia.
“According to unaudited data, the rates of return on investment (excluding unit-linked life insurance contract investments) were lower by 29% compared with 2017, mainly as a result of persisting low interest rates on the financial markets,” the statement noted.
Triglav Group employed 5,166 people at the end of December, 15 employees more than a year earlier.
($=0.87958 euro)
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