MILAN (Reuters) -Italy’s biggest insurer Generali reported double‑digit profit growth for the first nine months on Thursday, driven by its non‑life business and lower natural‑catastrophe claims.
In the first results since investors critical of CEO Philippe Donnet increased their influence at Italy’s biggest insurer, Generali said operating profit rose 10.1% to 5.9 billion euros ($6.88 billion), while the adjusted net result climbed 14% to 3.3 billion euros.
Both were broadly in line with a company-provided analyst consensus.
In September, state-backed lender Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena – with the support of Italian tycoon Francesco Gaetano Caltagirone and Delfin, the holding company of the late billionaire Leonardo Del Vecchio – gained control of Mediobanca , Generali’s largest investor.
Caltagirone and Delfin, both leading shareholders in Generali, repeatedly criticised Donnet, blaming him for not growing Generali adequately, and tried unsuccessfully to oust him in 2022.
The two have not given any indication of how they see the future of the insurer since MPS became its main investor.
Generali shares were up 1.8% at 0915 GMT, performing better than European peers. Analysts at J.P. Morgan cited a solid set of results, allowing the insurer to build up reserves.
On Wednesday, Generali’s board named insurance head Giulio Terzariol as group deputy chief executive, a move aimed at providing an internal CEO option should the two investors push for Donnet’s departure, sources have said.
The undiscounted combined ratio in the insurer’s non-life segment, a measure of underwriting performance in which a level below 100 indicates a profit, improved to 94.2% at September 30, from 96.3% a year earlier.
“After two years of significant Nat Cat experience, 2025 has been benign so far,” Generali’s head of finance Cristiano Borean said in a statement.
Borean said the natural catastrophe claims in the first nine months totalled 573 million euros, just over half of the full year budget for such claims, allowing it to strengthen its balance sheet.
In mid-November, Generali was still “well below” its budget of 1 billion euros in terms of claims related to natural disasters, Borean told a post-results briefing.
Generali confirmed all targets in its 2027 plan, including average earnings per share (EPS) growth of 8% to 10%, more than 7 billion euros in cumulative dividends and at least 1.5 billion euros of share buybacks over the plan period.
($1 = 0.8575 euros)
(Reporting by Gianluca Semeraro, editing by Valentina Za and Elaine Hardcastle)
