SCOR poised to embark on ‘transformation’ journey after profits climb 95% in 2021

Global reinsurance giant  SCOR enjoyed significant improvement in profitability, gross premiums and growth, particularly in its property and casualty segment, despite the high level of natural catastrophes and ongoing impact of COVID-19. Its top officials highlighted the company’s “shock-absorbing” capacity and ability to create value in a challenging environment as it looks to embark on the “transformation” journey.

The France-based reinsurer made a profit of €456 million in full-year 2021, up 95% on the €234 million profit it generated a year ago.

Total gross written premiums rose by almost 10% to reach €17.6 billion in 2021, compared with €16.4 billion in 2020.

SCOR’s global property and casualty (P&C) GWP increased 17.6% to €8.2 billion at constant exchange rates compared with 2020, following strong 2021 renewals in reinsurance and specialty insurance.

The P&C combined ratio, however, inched up to 100.6% in 2021, from 100.2% in the previous year. The CR included 12.8% of natural catastrophes, which SCOR claimed was “well above the cat budget”.

The life and health (L&H) gross written premiums were also up 3.6% at constant exchange rates compared with 2020.

Denis Kessler, chairman of SCOR, said: “Although 2021 was quite a challenging year, SCOR delivered a strong profitability and its solvency position is now more robust than it was a year ago.

“[...] This bears witness to the Group’s very strong financials and its ability to create value, even in a challenging environment.”

Laurent Rousseau (pictured), chief executive officer of SCOR, highlighted the company’s objectives going forward: “reducing volatility, increasing profitability, growing the franchise, optimally allocating capital and embarking on the transformation of the Group.”

“We are now actively preparing the next phase of our strategy and will provide an update on our situation and outlook to shareholders on March 29th, 2022. This should further highlight SCOR’s efforts to support sustainable and profitable growth while reinforcing its franchise and capital position,” Rousseau concluded.

Commenting on the results, Moody’s analyst Christian Badorff, said: “SCOR 2021 results reflect the negative impact of high natural catastrophe claims in P&C and high Covid-19 mortality loss-es in life reinsurance, but benefited from the back-book transaction with Covea and other positive one-offs.

“The improvement of the normalized P&C combined ratio in the course of 2021, paired with further rate increases in the recent renewals, should be supportive of stronger earnings levels in 2022, but uncertainty on potential large natural catastro-phes and on new covid variants the further trajectory of pandemic related mortality is an important risk factor for SCOR’s 2022 earnings.”

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