Suncorp says it expects better results as its insurance operation recovers from the recent spate of catastrophes.

“Our insurance business is stabilising, as are reinsurance costs, meaning we’re hopeful of seeing a return to the revenue and the profit we’d expect from a business of this scale and this complexity,” CEO Patrick Snowball told the AGM in Brisbane last week.

He says the recent run of natural disasters seemed so relentless that in his first couple of years in Australia “I don’t believe I saw the sun”.

Five years of disasters led to Suncorp’s reinsurance costs rising by $1 billion and pushed claims levels $1.2 billion above what would be “normally budgeted for major events and catastrophes”.

The costs amounted to $1.80 a share, Mr Snowball says.

With the number of natural disasters seemingly falling “our recent financial results confirm we have delivered as we said we would”.

Mr Snowball is driving a restructure of Suncorp to create “a single view on pricing and claims in our general insurance business, a single view of our customers and a single view of our financial structure”.

The company also aims “to make our policy systems more efficient, further simplify our general insurance business through consolidation and finally enhance our risk management under the Basel accreditation program”.