Life and health reinsurance
| Key figures for life and health reinsuranceFigures in EUR million | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2009 | +/- previous year |
2008 | 2007 | 2006 | 2005 | |
| 1 Operating result (EBIT)/net premium earned | ||||||
| Gross written premium | 4,529.3 | +44.5% | 3,134.4 | 3,082.9 | 2,793.6 | 2,425.1 |
| Premium deposits | 2,331.8 | +6.9% | 2,181.2 | 854.5 | 1,166.2 | 308.1 |
| Gross premium incl. premium deposits | 6,861.0 | +29.1% | 5,315.6 | 3,937.4 | 3,959.8 | 2,733.2 |
| Net premium earned | 4,078.7 | +46.5% | 2,784.9 | 2,795.3 | 2,373.4 | 2,257.6 |
| Premium deposits | 2,125.9 | ± 0% | 2,126.9 | 783.6 | 1,084.4 | 274.5 |
| Net premium incl. premium deposits | 6,204.5 | +26.3% | 4,911.8 | 3,579.0 | 3,457.8 | 2,532.1 |
| Investment income | 520.1 | +111.8% | 245.5 | 293.9 | 313.2 | 275.3 |
| Claims expenses | 2,743.0 | +63.8% | 1,674.7 | 1,672.2 | 1,495.3 | 1,415.2 |
| Change in benefit reserves | 563.7 | +33.8% | 421.3 | 397.9 | 192.8 | 258.0 |
| Commissions | 926.2 | +24.6% | 743.4 | 780.5 | 831.7 | 684.1 |
| Own administrative expenses | 98.3 | +40.3% | 70.1 | 61.2 | 50.0 | 59.3 |
| Other income / expenses | 104.6 | (0.2) | 52.7 | 22.7 | (23.1) | |
| Operating result (EBIT) | 372.2 | 120.7 | 229.8 | 139.5 | 93.1 | |
| Net income after tax | 295.5 | 78.3 | 187.7 | 102.6 | 59.6 | |
| Earnings per share in EUR | 2.45 | 0.65 | 1.57 | 0.85 | 0.49 | |
| Retention | 90.7% | 89.3% | 90.8% | 85.4% | 92.8% | |
| EBIT margin1 | 9.1% | 4.3% | 8.2% | 5.9% | 4.1% | |
Reinsurance activities in the life, annuity and health insurance lines are combined under the worldwide Hannover Life Re brand. We also reinsure personal accident insurance in this business group, insofar as it is transacted by life insurers.
The effects of the international financial market crisis, which made themselves felt in 2008, heavily impacted our operating results in the year under review in various respects.
In terms of markets, the weakening of the capital and solvency position of many life insurers around the world triggered brisk demand for tailored reinsurance solutions – with a central focus on financially oriented reinsurance models. We have placed particular emphasis on block assumption transactions, under which we assume existing blocks of policies that are closed to new business via quota share reinsurance arrangements. In several cases our clients indicated their interest in reinsurance solutions of this type in the 2010 year as well.
Internationally, we strengthened our market position – in some cases significantly – in our focus markets of the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, Australia and France; yet we also made appreciable progress in the key emerging markets of Greater China and India.
Our strategic orientation in the US market reached a milestone with the assumption of a large portfolio of US life insurance risks containing more than four million reinsured policies and generating annual premium income in excess of USD 1.0 billion. Along with this diversified portfolio, we also took over a number of other asset items – above all on the systems side – as well as 130 professional staff at locations in Charlotte/North Carolina and Denver/Colorado.
The life branches established in Asia in 2008 in the cities of Shanghai and Seoul have successfully executed their strategies for market entry and are now recognised providers in the local life markets – in China, for example, we have now built up more than 40 customer relationships.
In India, too, our cooperation with the market's leading reinsurer GIC Re is living up to expectations, and we were able to acquire the first sizeable treaties. In Brazil, with the backing of our representative office in Rio de Janeiro, we are systematically pursuing the cooperation with Malucelli Re and were able to acquire the first four cedants.
In the area of Sharia-compliant products, which are marketed through our subsidiary Hannover ReTakaful in Bahrain, we are similarly making good advances. In this context we provide reinsurance in the countries of the Gulf region for so-called family takaful products, mostly on a group basis. Such products are designed to satisfy various family protection needs, including for example ensuring that education expenses for children can be paid.
Overall, we considerably strengthened our international market position and now rank among the leading providers in a number of major insurance markets. In the year under review we thus moved another significant stride closer to attaining our goal of claiming the number 3 spot in the global market within the foreseeable future.