Finnish insurer Sampo's Q1 profit beats forecasts (updated)
05/05/2021 08:41
(Adds detail)
HELSINKI, May 5 (Reuters) - Finnish financial group Sampo
SAMPO.HE on Wednesday posted a bigger-than-expected rise in
first-quarter pretax profit driven by its property and casualty
unit and said it remained on track to deliver its 2021 financial
targets.
The pan-Nordic insurer, which owns 15.9% of Nordea bank
NDAFI.HE , reported a pretax profit of 632 million euros ($758
million) versus 162 million a year ago and well above the 428.8
million mean estimate of 5 analysts polled by Refinitiv.
urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL8N2MQ11G
Sampo said the combined ratio for its property and casualty
insurance dropped 4.5 percentage points to 81.2% in the first
three months of the year, beating a mean estimate of 84.06%. A
ratio below 100 means the insurer earns more in premiums than it
pays out in claims.
The company said its core property and casualty insurance
business turned in its strongest ever underwriting results with
the group's underwriting profits rising by 37% to 317 million
euros.
Sampo's shares, up 14.29% this year, were 2.48% higher at
40.1 euros at 0720 GMT.
($1 = 0.8338 euros)
(Reporting by Essi Lehto, editing by Louise Heavens and Jason
Neely)
((Essi.Lehto@thomsonreuters.com; +358505412375;))