AGF Profits up 45% to $1.44 Billion

French insurer AGF, which is majority owned by Germany’s Allianz, posted a 45 percent increase in net profits for the year 2004 to $1.1 billion euros ($1.44 billion), compared to 763 million euros ($997 million) in 2003, well ahead of analysts’ forecasts.

The results are good news for Allianz as well. The company told Agence France Presse (AFP) that it intends to raise its share dividend by 30 percent. “We are very please with this result, which we owe to better-than-expected operating performances,” company secretary Jean-Michel Mangeot told AFP on Monday.

Underlying profit rose to 1.5 billion euros ($1.96 billion) from 1.07 billion euros ($1.4 billion) a year earlier. AGF’s P/C unit posted an overall combined ratio of 95.5 percent – 98.8 percent in France.

Measured in actual exchange rates the company’s sales fell by 5.1 percent to 17.34 billion euros ($22.66 billion), although when calculated according to constant exchange rates and comparable assets, they were up by 2.3 percent on the year.