Munich Re Plans to Return €5.3 Billion to Investors

German reinsurer Munich Re announced plans to return €5.3 billion ($6.3 billion) to shareholders through a new buyback program and a higher dividend.

The firm aims to repurchase as much as €2.25 billion of its stock, according to a statement on Wednesday. It is also intends to propose a dividend of €24.00 per share for 2025, up from €20 in the prior year.

Munich Re outlined new mid-term targets in December. Under the strategy, which runs through the end of 2030, it plans to pay out more than 80% of profits through dividends and buybacks. That compares to an average of about 75% between 2020 and 2024.

“Distributing a high proportion of profits is common in the insurance sector, but Munich Re leads the peer group with ‘over 80%’,” DZ Bank said in a research note last week.

Munich Re expects to achieve a net income of €6 billion in 2025, it said last year. That’s up from €5.7 billion reported by the firm for the previous year. It’s scheduled to report earnings on Thursday.

The new buyback program is slated to start on Apr. 29, Munich Re said in the statement.

Photograph: The Munich Re logo at a press conference in Munich. Photo credit: Guenter Schiffmann/Bloomberg