Reinsurer sees opportunities to deploy capital in its quest to boost return on equity.
Swiss Re will continue to focus on keeping costs under control while seeking opportunities to effectively deploy shareholder capital in its efforts to achieve higher returns, the reinsurer said at in a media prelease prior to its investor's day presentation Tuesday.
The overarching goal is to grow profitably while adhering to strict cost management in order to improve its margin, as the group had outlined when presenting its annual figures a few weeks ago.
Return on Equity
Swiss Re is seeking to boost its return on equity (ROE), which has been affected by Covid, to 14 percent by 2024, by being more than a vehicle to transfer client risk.
«Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, the underlying L&H Re business continues to perform strongly,» said Swiss Re Group CEO Christian Mumenthaler.
In 2021, Swiss Re reported an ROE of 5.7 percent which would have been 11.6 percent when excluding the effects of Covid. The year before the reinsurer reported an ROE of -3.1 percent, but excluding Covid it was 7.3 percent.
Deploying Capital
There are also opportunities to deploy capital across all businesses while controlling costs.
«Our strategy to provide more than just risk transfer to our clients is working, and we see attractive opportunities to deploy shareholders’ capital. At the same time, we will maintain our strict cost discipline, which has allowed us to keep costs broadly stable over the past ten years, while growing revenues by 6 percent per annum,» Mumenthaler said.
