Outlook for the full 2012 financial year
In the current year we anticipate another very good overall result for the Hannover Re Group. The non-life reinsurance business group is expected to deliver an increase of 5% to 7% in gross premium income at constant exchange rates.
In the life and health reinsurance business group we are similarly aiming to grow our gross premium income organically by 5% to 7%.
We therefore expect to enlarge our total gross premium volume by 5% to 7%.
The expected positive cash flow that we generate from the technical account and our investments should – subject to stable exchange rates – lead to further growth in our asset portfolio. In the area of fixed-income securities we continue to stress the high quality and diversification of our portfolio.
Bearing in mind the satisfactory to good market conditions described above in non-life and life/health reinsurance as well as our strategic orientation, we are looking forward to a good financial year in 2012. This is subject to the premise that the burden of major losses does not significantly exceed the expected level of around EUR 560 million and that there are no drastically adverse movements on capital markets. Given a growing volume of assets under management, a net return on investment in the order of 3.5% should be attainable. For 2012, as in recent years, we are therefore aiming for a dividend in the range of 35% to 40% of Group net income.
Matters of special significance arising after the closing date for the consolidated financial statements are discussed in Section 7.11 “Events after the balance sheet date”.