Insurer Mapfre buoyed by US recovery and fewer natural disasters (updated)

Mapfre SA

26/07/2024 12:02

(Adds context and details on U.S. business, natural disasters)
       July 26 (Reuters) - Spanish insurer Mapfre  MAP.MC  said
on Friday its first-half net profit jumped thanks to fewer and
more benign natural disasters and a turnaround in its car
insurance business in the United States.
    Mapfre said its net profit rose 65% to 494 million euros
($536 million), up from 300 million euros in the same period a
year ago, under new IFRS accounting rules. 
    According to local accounting rules, net profit rose 46% to
462 million euros.
    Mapfre shares were up 1.6% in late morning trading, while
the blue-chip IBEX35 index was down 0.1%.
    The company attributed the profit increase to its unit in
the United States where it managed to turn around a struggling
auto insurance business with higher fees and as more benign
weather conditions curbed insurance payouts. 
    Its North American unit contributed to the bottom line with
a 41-million-euro profit compared with a 17-million-euro loss in
the same period last year.   
    Mapfre also booked higher profits from its reinsurance
business, which was hit by a devastating earthquake in Turkey in
the first half of 2023. The company had to book a
99-million-euro loss because of the earthquake.
    In the first half of this year, the main natural disaster
was the flooding in Brazil, for which it had to book a
41-million-euro loss.
    "There were no other relevant catastrophes," it said.
    In the first six months of 2024, the group's revenues
amounted to 17.72 billion euros, up 4.1% from a year earlier.
The non-life combined ratio at the end of June stood at 95.7%, a
decrease of 1.4 percentage points.
    ($1 = 0.9215 euros)

 (Reporting by Jakub Olesiuk and Joao Vicente, editing by Inti
Landauro and Emelia Sithole-Matarise)
 ((jakub.olesiuk@thomsonreuters.com; +48 58 769 66 00;))