Zurich Insurance 1Q Gross Written Premiums Rose

   By Mauro Orru

Zurich Insurance Group AG said Thursday that property and casualty gross written premiums for the first quarter of 2020 increased year-on-year on the back of higher premium rates and growth in Europe, the Middle East and Africa and North America.

The Swiss insurer said quarterly property and casualty gross written premiums rose to $9.68 billion from $9.18 billion for the first quarter of 2019.

The company's life annual premium equivalent--which measures new business growth by combining the value of payments on new regular premium policies, and 10% of the value of payments made on one-time, single-premium products--fell to $958 million from $1.18 billion.

The company said property and casualty claims from the coronavirus pandemic are subject to significant uncertainty, but that property and casualty claims for the year could total around $750 million.

"The impact of claims related to the Covid-19 outbreak and the sharp falls in financial markets in the latter part of the first quarter are expected to remain a 2020 earnings event," Chief Financial Officer George Quinn said.

Write to Mauro Orru at mauro.orru@wsj.com; @MauroOrru94

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

May 14, 2020 01:16 ET (05:16 GMT)

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