ALLIANZ reported a fourth-quarter revenue that jumped by 17 per cent because the dad or mum firm of Pacific Investment Management prepares to return extra capital to buyers.
Group working revenue rose to three.77 billion euros (S$5.48 billion) on sturdy outcomes from the life-health insurance coverage enterprise, Allianz mentioned on Friday (Feb 23). That was barely higher than the three.74 billion euros analysts had anticipated. The firm targets an working revenue of between 13.8 billion euros and 15.8 billion euros this yr, it mentioned.
Allianz additionally plans to kick off a brand new share buyback of as a lot as 1 billion euros and it proposes to lift the dividend by a fifth to 13.80 euros per share, in response to a separate assertion late Thursday.
Chief govt officer Oliver Baete, who took the helm at Munich-based Allianz nearly a decade in the past, has made returning cash to buyers a precedence. He has already handed shareholders about 40 billion euros in dividends and buybacks since early 2017, in response to Bloomberg calculations.
Fourth-quarter working revenue in property-casualty insurance coverage elevated by 2 per cent, whereas life-health insurance coverage earnings jumped 29 per cent. The asset administration section, which additionally consists of Allianz Global Investors, noticed revenue rise by 13 per cent.
Pimco’s third-party buyers pulled 3 billion euros within the three months by means of December. That put a halt to a restoration that noticed purchasers add cash in every of the primary three quarters of final yr after the asset supervisor had suffered 75 billion euros in outflows in 2022.
However, the US funding agency has since swung again to inflows because it pulled within the lion’s share of the greater than 20 billion euros that purchasers shifted into Allianz’s asset administration unit throughout the first six weeks of the present yr, in response to a spokesman. He was including to feedback made by chief monetary officer Claire-Marie Coste-Lepoutre on Bloomberg TV.
Allianz amended its dividend coverage, with common payouts rising to 60 per cent of internet revenue attributable to shareholders from 50 per cent. It goals to pay a per-share dividend of a minimum of the identical quantity because the earlier yr, it added, after beforehand concentrating on a rise of a minimum of 5 per cent.
Some analysts have pointed to the potential of Allianz transferring from occasional buyback bulletins all year long to an annual programme, which may remove some quarterly uncertainty.
“We would have a preference for share buybacks on a yearly basis,” Coste-Lepoutre mentioned within the TV interview.
The firm would possibly replace buyers at its capital markets day later this yr. BLOOMBERG