Most Australian general insurers are making a profit despite a string of natural disasters, but some clocked up spectacular losses during the 2011 financial year.

The most profitable insurer during 2011 was Vero, which reported a $613 million net profit.

The figure is revealed in the latest Australian Prudential Regulation Authority’s General Insurance Company Level Statistics.

The next most profitable insurer after Vero was IAG, with $427 million, followed by Suncorp Metway Insurance with $345.1 million.

Vero achieved its strong return on net premiums of $1 billion and net claims of $700 million.

The insurer is also in a very healthy position of having total assets of $6.3 billion and total liabilities of $3.6 billion. It operates a capital surplus of $1.1 billion, giving it solvency coverage of 2.41.

While Australian-owned insurers have performed well – QBE reported a $95.3 million profit for its local operations – some of the overseas-owned insurers have also been recording strong returns on their Australian operations.

Allianz Australia reported a net profit of $301.6 million for the 2011 financial year based on net premiums of $2.3 billion and net claims of $1.6 billion.

Its total assets were $8.4 billion at June 30 last year with total liabilities of $6.6 billion. Allianz’s capital surplus was $319 million giving it solvency coverage of 1.35.

Other overseas-owned insurers also performed well, with Zurich recording a net profit of $37 million, WR Berkley $846 million, Chubb $54.9 million and Hollard $7.4 million.

The local arms of the reinsurance companies performed well despite a horrendous start to 2011.

Munich Re led the three major reinsurers with a net profit of $207 million while Swiss Re reported a $147 million net profit and Hannover Re $9.2 million.

Munich Re’s net earned premiums for the 12 months were $802.8 million and its net incurred claims were $483 million.

Swiss Re earned net premiums of $351 million and claims of $141 million. Hannover Re’s net premiums were $131 million and net claims topped $141 million.    

One area of general insurance that seems to be very profitable is lenders mortgage cover.

QBE Lenders’ Mortgage Insurance recorded a net profit of $253 million while the other major player, Genworth, recorded a net profit of $191 million.

New premiums earned by QBE LMI were $338 million, while net claims were only $9.9 million. It was a similar story at Genworth, with net premiums of $358 million and net claims of $155 million.

While many insurers managed to make profits in millions of dollars during the year, some reported their results in thousands.

The smallest profit for the year was by UK-owned niche player Domestic and General Insurance, with a result of $4000 on gross premiums of $799,000.

But not all general insurers made a profit during the 2011 financial year, with the biggest loss achieved by Youi, with a $30 million shortfall. The South African insurer had net premium revenue of $61.4 million and net claims of $42.1 million.

Its total assets at June 30 stood at $160 million with total liabilities of $80.5 million. Youi’s capital surplus was $61 million giving it solvency coverage of 4.4.

Other insurers clocking up significant losses were New India with $19.9 million followed by Wesfarmers General Insurance with a net loss of $16.7 million.

The smallest loss for the year was by the local arm of global trade credit insurer Coface with an $89,000 loss on gross premiums of $21 million.

In comparison, APRA’s figures on the Australian life insurance industry show every company delivered a profit.

The largest net profit was by AMP with $593 million followed by Challenger with $360 million for the 12 months ending June 2011.