Munich Re Earnings: A Beat Again; Guidance Confirmed With Potential Upgrade; We Remain Cautious

While there isn’t much in Munich Re’s first-quarter results to make us think the business has made any strategic progress, the results still look good. The company previously outlined a growth target for global specialty insurance gross written premiums by end-2025 of EUR 10 billion; while we can’t attribute any of the first-quarter results directly to this Munich Re has grown its property and casualty insurance revenue by 5.1%. These lines are typically written with better levels of underwriting profit and Munich Re’s property and casualty combined ratio has improved quarter on quarter to 75.3%. While that improvement includes a significant discounting benefit of 7.5%, more broadly a substantial improvement has come from lower basic losses. However, in the April renewals, the business has seen some weakness in pricing strength, with risk-adjusted prices down by 0.7%.