SCOR’s Q1 Net Profit Drops 21% on Japan Typhoons in 2018

April 26, 2019

French reinsurer SCOR, whose CEO faces a vote on his demotion during a shareholders meeting on Friday, said its net profit in the first quarter fell 21 percent as a result of the impact of 2018 typhoons in Japan.

SCOR booked a net profit of 131 million euros ($145.89 million) in the first quarter of this year, down from 166 million [$185 million] in the same period last year.

The company’s gross written premiums rose 5.7 percent to 3.99 billion euros [$4.5 billion]. Overall, SCOR’s annualized return on equity fell 2.2 percentage points to 9 percent, the company said.

SCOR’s CEO Denis Kessler will face later on Friday a vote sponsored by activist fund CIAM to oust him from the board during the company’s annual shareholders meeting.

The vote comes after months of tension over French co-operative insurer Covea’s failed 8.2 billion euro [$9.14 billion] takeover bid for SCOR last year, which was opposed by Kessler and earned him criticism from French activist fund CIAM.

($1 = 0.8979 euros) (Reporting by Inti Landauro; editing by Sudip Kar-Gupta)