Munich Re pleases shareholders

With final figures due to come in on May 7, German reinsurer Munich Re told a shareholder meeting on Thursday first-quarter results would beat those logged in previous years.

"All in all, we expect bottom-line profit to reach almost 1 billion euros ($1.3 billion) in the first three months of the year," CEO Nikolaus von Bomhard said in his address to investors. He added the positive result was largely based on the lack of big natural disasters in the period under revision.

Munich Re last booked a similar first-quarter profit back in 2007, that is before the start of the global financial crisis. Year on year, quarterly earnings would be up from 782 million euros.

Where to park money?

Von Bomhard warned against extrapolating Q1 results to the whole of 2013. "There's still a long way to go," he commented, adding that despite irremovable uncertainties in the reinsurance business all-year earnings were likely to total about 3 billion euros.

Although Munich Re shares moved up only slightly on the news on Thursday, shareholders were nevertheless content with the performance of the company which had seen the DAX-listed stock surging by more than 10 percent since the beginning of the year.

CEO von Bomhard also pointed out that the strategic investment of financial resources on capital markets was becoming harder as continuously low yields were making it tougher to ensure gains over a period of many decades.

hg/hc (dpa, Reuters)