Allianz Forecasts $2.8 Billion Q1 Profit
Germany’s Allianz SE said it expects a “solid operating profit” for the first quarter of 2008 of €1.8 billion ($2.8 billion) “despite a difficult market environment.”
The Allianz Group expects mark-downs of almost €900 million ($1.4 billion) for the first quarter 2008, “which,” the announcement explained, “will have to be accrued in the area of structured financial products of Dresdner Bank due to the ongoing financial market crisis.”
Allianz estimated Q1 profit of €1.8 billion is a significant drop from the € 2.9 billion ($4.5 billion) it posted for the first quarter of 2007.”
The announcement further explained: “Based on disadvantageous stock prices, realized gains from investments were consciously kept low, while in previous year’s quarter during favorable market conditions realized gains amounted to €2.0 billion [$3.116 billion]. Therefore, net income for the first quarter 2008 is expected to reach about €1.1 billion [$1.71 billion], which is clearly below previous year’s result of €3.2 billion [$4.98 billion].”
Helmut Perlet, Board Member of Allianz SE, stated: “In this difficult market environment, an operating profit of almost 2 billion euros underlines our sustainable underlying profitability. Hence, we consider our medium term targets for 2009 to be still feasible, even though this will become harder, the longer the financial crisis will last.”
Allianz will publish full details for the first quarter 2008 on May 9, 2008.
Source: Allianz SE – www.allianz.com