HANNOVER (dpa-AFX) - Good business with industry and abroad has given the insurance group Talanx (HDI) a brilliant start to the year. Nevertheless, the Executive Board does not intend to raise its profit target for 2024 for the time being. CFO Jan Wicke considers such a step to be conceivable only in the fall, when the hurricane season in the North Atlantic and thus the risk of particularly large losses is over. However, following a profit of 572 million euros in the first quarter, he and CEO Jan Wicke were more confident on Wednesday that the profit target of more than 1.7 billion euros will be "significantly" exceeded this year.

The news was received positively on the stock market: Although Talanx had already published the surprisingly high quarterly profit at the end of April, the Group's share price had risen by more than one percent by midday, making it one of the stronger stocks in the MDax, the index of mid-sized stocks.

"The hurricane season is in the third quarter, that's when the major losses happen," said Wicke in a conference call with journalists. If the industry were to adjust its annual forecast, it would be after the third quarter. However, he was optimistic that the Group would achieve a return on equity of more than 15 percent this year. He said that 19 percent was also within reach. In the first quarter, the return on equity was 21.2 percent.

The fact that the Group earned 35 percent more in the first three months than a year earlier was primarily due to industrial insurance under the HDI brand and private and corporate insurance abroad. The entire primary insurance business increased its profit by 45 percent, while Hannover Re, the world's third-largest reinsurer, contributed 24 percent more. The Talanx Group owns a good half of the Hannover Re shares. As a result, slightly more than half of the reinsurer's profit is included in Talanx's bottom line.

Despite the good performance of primary insurance, Hannover Re still contributed a good half of Talanx's profit at EUR 305 million. Industrial insurance under the HDI brand contributed 104 million euros, private and corporate customer insurance abroad 120 million euros. Only 43 million euros came from private and corporate customer business in the German domestic market.

Insurance sales rose by nine percent to 11.65 billion euros. Talanx benefited from strong growth in Poland and Brazil. In Brazil, the acquired business of the insurer Liberty Mutual was also included in the figures for the first time.

In the overall property and casualty business of the Talanx Group, a larger proportion of income now remained as underwriting profit than a year earlier: the combined ratio improved from 93.5 to 90.9 percent./stw/mne/jha/