Allianz Lanka continues upward growth trend into 3Q

Allianz Lanka continued its strong upward growth trend into the Third Quarter 2007, achieving a substantial 174 per cent growth in Profit before tax, an increase from Rs. 9.3 million in 2006, to Rs. 25.6 million in the first nine months of the current year.

Gross Written Premium also reached a record of Rs. 324 million during this period, which is a substantial 44 per cent growth over last year's of Rs. 226.2 million.

Underwriting Profits swelled correspondingly, to Rs. 11.8 million in 2007, reflecting an increase of 146 per cent over the Underwriting Profit of Rs. 4.8 million during the same period last year.

The local company's profitability was reflected in the successful performance of its parent company, with Allianz Group too, remaining on target in the third quarter, with quarterly net income increasing by 20.7 per cent, from 1.59 billion euros to 1.92 billion euros during the period.

Net income for the period increased by 29.2 per cent, to 7.30 billion euros and Operating Profit on a nine-month basis increased by 7.8 per cent, to 8.76 billion euros, of which 2.60 billion euros was the profit of the third quarter.

While this corresponds to a decrease of 2.1 per cent, Operating Profit remains close to the high level of the previous year's quarter at 2.66 billion euros. Total revenues in 3Q 2007 amounted to 23 billion euros, which reflects a growth of around 400 million euros compared with the third quarter of 2006.

Double-digit growth in operating profit came from the asset management and life insurance segments.

Allianz SE's Chief Financial Officer Dr. Helmut Perlet said, "The stable operating result shows that we will achieve our earnings targets for 2007 despite the difficult capital market environment. We will continue to pursue our policy of robust risk management, as well as enhance the quality and efficiency in all lines of business."