An increase in reserves in Property & Casualty reinsurance had a significant impact on EBIT, particularly in the fourth quarter, which led to a much greater increase in the confidence level of reserves than originally planned. According to initial estimates, the resiliency reserve at the end of the 2023 financial year will be significantly higher than the targeted EUR 1.7 billion (2022: EUR 1.38 billion).
Accordingly, the operating result for Property & Casualty reinsurance reached EUR 1.10 billion (forecast: at least EUR 1.6 billion). The underlying profitability, however, developed very favourably due to the attractive market environment and was fully in line with expectations. Life & Health reinsurance contributed EUR 0.87 billion (forecast: at least EUR 0.75 billion) to the operating result.
Group net income increased to EUR 1.8 billion and Hannover Re thus achieved its annual profit target of at least EUR 1.7 billion (consensus: EUR 1.8 billion). In particular a one-off tax effect had a positive impact, reducing the Group tax rate to 1.4% in 2023 (previous year: 22.7%).
Hannover Re will publish the annual report for the 2023 financial year as announced on 18 March 2024.