Allianz’s Australian operations suffered a €43 million ($64.46 million) loss in the first quarter, damaged by record flooding in NSW and Queensland which offset good growth in retail and commercial lines.

Globally, Allianz says claims from natural catastrophes nearly quadrupled in the quarter, leading to a decline in underwriting results in its property & casualty (P&C) business segment despite higher volumes and prices.

Allianz’s global P&C combined ratio rose to 94.7% as net natural catastrophe losses of €689 million ($1.03 billion) had a 5-percentage point impact, to be “significantly above” both the €186 million ($279 million) losses recorded a year earlier and the 10-year average percentage point average impact of 1.9%.

The losses were mostly “due to Australian floods and several storm events across Europe,” Allianz said.

Locally, the first-quarter combined ratio at Allianz Australia was 106.6%, a 9-percentage point deterioration from a year earlier. Natural catastrophes represented 20.8 percentage points, up from 12.9 a year earlier.

Revenue at Allianz Australia P&C jumped 21% to €887 million ($1.33 billion) in the first three months of 2022, helped by the acquisition of Westpac’s general insurance arm. Like-for-like growth was 8%.

Allianz says first-quarter rate P&C renewals in Australia were up 3.5%, compared with 4.8% in full-year 2021.

Allianz’s global operating profit slipped 2.9% to €3.2 billion euros ($4.8 billion) despite a 6% rise in revenue to €44 billion euros ($65.96 billion). It says it is still on track for 2022 operating profit of within a billion euros of €13.4 billion euros ($20.09 billion).