FRANKFURT (AFP) - The world's biggest reinsurance company, Munich Re, revised its profit targets for this year in the wake of a spate of deadly hurricanes and typhoons in the United States and Asia.
The German company had originally forecast net profits of two billion euros (2.6 billion dollars) "but after the cyclones this figure has clearly become hard to reach and so we have decided to make it the upper range of our predictions," said the group's financial controller Joerg Schneider.
The cyclones, such as hurricanes Charley, Frances, Ivan and Jeanne, and typhoons Songda and Chaba had cost Munich Re around 550 million euros.
The group's third quarter profits were otherwise good. From July to the end of September, Munich Re recorded net profits of 365 million euros, compared with 42 million euros in the same period last year.
Operating profit for the same period was 490 million euros against 253 euros the year before.
Munich Re said its third quarter gross premium income was 9.25 billion euros, down from 9.9 billion euros. Over the first nine months of the year its gross premium income was 28.9 billion euros, which was also slightly down.
11/08/2004 - 10:49 GMT - AFP