Higher premiums and good investment results have driven strong growth at Zurich. Shareholders of the largest Swiss insurer will now benefit from this twice over.

The insurance group Zurich made a net income of 4.35 billion dollars in 2023. This is a rise of 10 percent on a like-for-like basis, Zurich said in a statement on Thursday.

«We delivered very strong financial and operational results in 2023 with broad-based progress across our markets in the Asia Pacific region. This solid performance results from focused execution in each of our markets and the product of ongoing actions to strengthen our platform across the region. We will continue to build on this progress in 2024, further leveraging and embedding new technology to deliver exceptional customer service and drive greater value for our partners,» Tulsi Naidu, APAC CEO, Zurich Insurance Group, said.

Higher Dividend and Share Buyback

According to the statement, the improvement in the result was mainly driven by growth, higher premiums and a good investment result. All business areas contributed to the growth.

Shareholders are now also set to benefit from this. An 8 percent rise in the dividend to 26 Swiss francs per share is to be proposed to the annual general meeting (AGM). In addition, there is to be a share buyback of up to 1.1 billion francs.

Record Returns in Life Business

«We delivered record returns in 2023, well ahead of all targets for 2023–2025, with particularly strong growth in P&C and Life and highly effective management actions at the Farmers Exchanges,» said CEO Mario Greco.

In addition, Zurich reported that its U.S. subsidiary Farmers also saw growth, and the Zurich Group achieved an excellent performance in its Commercial Insurance business and a record performance in its Life business. The strategy of focusing on pensions and the capital-protected savings business has paid off here. The important combined ratio in property and casualty insurance remained stable to the previous year at 94.5 percent.

Confidence in Management

Business operating profit reached a new record of 7.38 billion dollars. This is a year-on-year rise of 21 percent.

At Farmers, business operating profit increased by 10 percent to 2.3 billion dollars and management actions drove its combined ratio in the fourth quarter to 89.8 percent. The Group’s capital position remained solid with a Swiss Solvency Test (SST) ratio of 233 percent.

The Group also believes it is well-positioned for the future – management expects positive momentum to continue. «I expect this positive momentum to continue and to achieve EPS growth above 10 percent over the cycle,» CEO Mario Greco stated.

Election to the Board of Directors

The election of John Rafter to the board of directors is to be proposed at the AGM on April 10, 2024. It was reported that he has had a distinguished career as an investment banker at Goldman Sachs. Rafter brings strategic, capital markets and financial expertise with an in-depth knowledge of the global insurance industry, Zurich writes.