The insurance giant Tryg has today released its financial report for the third quarter of 2014, revealing a decline since last year that was not as drastic as commentators had feared following the avalanche of claims that followed the cloudburst in August.
READ MORE: Disappointing Tryg profits despite mild winter
The Q3 profit before tax was 782 million kroner, compared to 907 million kroner in the same period last year. This means that the combined result for the first three quarters was 2,534 million kroner, up from 2,354 kroner million kroner last year.
Saved by efficiency program
In a press release accompanying the report, the company emphasised the role played by storm damage claims but highlighted a premium income development and the success of an ongoing efficiency program in mitigating the negative impact on the result.
Morten Hübbe, Tryg’s CEO, emphasised that the negative impact of the storms could have been much greater.
“At a time characterised by challenging weather conditions, I am pleased that the extremely focused claims prevention efforts that we launched after the severe cloudburst in July 2011 have helped reduce the volume of claims after the cloudbursts that hit the region in Q3,” he said.
“This is good news both for our customers and for our shareholders.”
Stock market conditions meant that in Q3 there was a negative return on the company’s investments of one million kroner, compared to a positive return of 152 million kroner in Q3 2013. This contributed in a drop of positive investment return over the first three quarters from 434 million kroner in 2013 to 347 million kroner in 2014.
