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Ageas swings to Q3 loss on Greece writedown
BRUSSELS, Nov 9 (Reuters) - Belgium-based insurance group Ageas swung to a third-quarter loss as it reduced the value of its bond holdings in troubled Greece.
However, it said the strength of its underlying operations, which include AG Insurance in Belgium and selling insurance for the supermarket group Tesco in Britain, mean it still expects to make a payout to its shareholders for 2011.
Ageas lost 319.6 million euros ($441.3 million) in its insurance operations in the third quarter, wider than a loss of 279 million euros expected on average by six banks and brokerages polled by Reuters.
But when financial market problems were taken out of the equation, net profit at its core insurance operations rose by 22 percent to 406 million euros, it said, aided by a good performance in car and home insurance operations.
It also cut its total gross sovereign exposure to southern European countries at Sept. 30 at amortized cost to 5.4 billion euros, from 8.9 billion euros at the end of 2010.
"On the non-life results I think the market is probably reassured that the combined ratio is heading into the right direction ... overall the trends are improving," said ING analyst Albert Ploegh in Amsterdam.
He added that the reduction in Ageas' exposure to southern European bonds was also good news.
Ageas' combined ratio, a measure of insurance profitability where a figure under 100 indicates an underwriting profit, fell to 101.2 percent in the first nine months of the year, compared with 104.5 percent in the same period last year.
Ageas shares were broadly flat, after having lost over 10 percent at the end of last month when it dropped its outlook and cut the value of its Greek bond holdings by 57 percent, citing turmoil in financial markets.
