August 18 (SeeNews) - Slovenia's biggest insurer Zavarovalnica Triglav [LJE:ZVTG] said on Friday its first-half consolidated net profit climbed 6% on the year to 36.1 million euro ($42.4 million), on the back of higher returns on investments.
The group’s consolidated insurance and co-insurance premium revenue increased 8% to 547.8 million euro in January-June. Premiums of the non-life insurance segment rose by 8%, whilst the life insurance and health insurance segments recorded a premium increase of 6% and 14%, respectively, Triglav said in a Ljubljana bourse filing.
In the reporting period, the group performed well on all markets. The premium growth on the Slovene market was 7% to 423.2 million euro, or 77.3% of total premiums.
The highest premium growth rate of 33% was recorded on the Serbian market, where premiums reached 22.9 million euro. Serbia was followed by Croatia, with a premium growth of 11% to 32.0 million euro.
Triglav's global reinsurance sector saw a growth in premiums of 7% to 28.0 million euro, while Bosnia followed with a 5% expansion to 14.4 million euro. Montenegro and Macedonia posted the lowest growth rates, of 3% to 15.6 million euro and and 2% to 11.7 million euro, respectively.
Despite the challenging conditions on capital markets, the group managed its financial investments totalling 3.1 billion euro in accordance with its relatively conservative investment policy. Compared to the year before, returns on financial investments rose by 13% as the result of some one-off events in 2016 and this year.
Triglav employed 5,102 at the end of June, up 56 compared to to the end-2016 figure. The number of employees increased mostly due to higher number of employees of Triglav Osiguranje, Belgrade due to strengthening of the internal sales network.
The group had a 36.6% share of the Slovene insurance market, where 14 insurance companies, 4 foreign branch offices and 2 reinsurance companies operate.
Triglav said that its net profit in 2017 should be within the planned range. The company earlier said it plans a pre-tax profit of 70 to 80 million euro, and gross written premiums of 930 million euro at the end of the year.
($=0.850998 euro)
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