The French insurer Axa published this Thursday an almost stable turnover (+2%) in 2022, at 102,300 million euros, but a net profit of less than 8%, at 6,680 million euros, weighed down by the deterioration of certain assets.
“Axa achieved a very good performance in 2022 despite a difficult economic environment, proof of the resilience of our model,” said general manager Thomas Buberl, quoted in a press release.
In 2021, the group generated 7,290 million euros in net profit, for a turnover of 99,900 million euros.
It is almost on par with its European competitor Allianz last year, which posted a net profit of 6.74 billion euros on February 17, but Axa disappoints analysts, who had expected a profit of more than 7 billion euros.
If the activity continues, the rise in rates “has caused a certain number of fixed-income assets to see their value reduced and this variation is transferred to the net result,” said the financial director, Alban de Mailly Nesle, during a telephone press conference . A capital loss of almost 500 million euros.
Good performance of property and casualty insurance
Specifically, the group’s activity was boosted by the good performance of property and accident insurance, especially automobiles. This division recorded sales 2% more to 51,600 million euros.
The health line saw its turnover increase by 16%, to €17.4bn, driven in particular by contracts in France but also in the UK and Ireland, while the life insurance line saw its own 5% decline to 31,500 million euros, reduced by the drop in sales of the euro fund. It also suffers from the comparison with an exceptional year 2021 for the units of account, Axa specifies.
Axa will redistribute a substantial part of its net profit to its shareholders. The proposed dividend is 1.70 euros per share (+10%), or 3.9 billion euros in total. In addition, there is a share repurchase program for a maximum amount of 1,100 million euros.
Source: BFM TV
