Talanx says Australia floods were largest single Q1 loss

Recent flooding in Queensland and NSW caused the largest single first-quarter loss for Talanx, at €236 million ($349.96 million), which along with storms in Europe helped push its combined ratio to 98.3%, from 96.1% a year earlier.

Chairman Torsten Leue says natural disasters have never impacted the business more, and Talanx will no longer provide cover for greenfield Arctic drilling on an individual risk basis as it expands its sustainability goals.

“We are feeling climate change in our business activities around the world, both in primary insurance and in reinsurance,” he said.

“We want to use our sustainability strategy to help limit natural disasters resulting from climate change.”

The Property/Casualty Reinsurance segment combined ratio rose to 99.5%, from 96.2% a year earlier, on an underwriting result of €21 million ($31.29 million).

“The increase in large losses, which was mainly due to the storms in Europe and the flooding in Australia, had a major impact,” Talanx said, with the estimated large loss budget exceeded by 18%.

Mr Leue says the Hannover-based insurer, which owns HDI Global, is off to a good start to the year despite “higher losses from natural disasters in particular,” and confirmed its outlook for the current financial year of net income in a range of €1.05-1.15 billion ($1.56-1.71 billion).

Gross written premiums rose 16.5% in the first quarter from a year earlier to €15.9 billion ($23.69 billion).

“Our group saw double-digit percentage growth in all divisions in the first quarter, and we generated good group net income of €256 million,” Mr Leue said.

Talanx says issuers participating in greenfield Arctic drilling projects are also being excluded from investment activities throughout Talanx, it says. The pledge comes after AIG committed in March to not investing in or providing insurance cover for any new Arctic energy exploration activities.

From 2038, Talanx will not insure business models based on coal or oil sands and says carbon emissions from its operations declined 18% year-on-year and operations in Germany – where 45% of its employees work – are climate-neutral.

A new remuneration system defines individual goals for each board member in good governance and the contribution made to Talanx’s sustainability strategy.