Munich Re has surpassed its maximum profit forecast for last year by €100 million ($161 million), posting an 11.9% increase to €3.9 billion ($6.3 billion) despite adverse weather losses and investment market turmoil.

The company's reinsurance arm enjoyed a 23% spike in profit to €3.3 billion ($5.3 billion) but the combined ratio fell by 3.8 percentage points to 96.4%.

Primary insurance struggled, with profit falling 5.8% to €984 million ($1.6 billion) and the combined ratio falling 2.6 percentage points to 93.4%.

Overall gross written premiums fell marginally by 0.5% to €37.3 billion ($59.9 billion) from €37.4 billion ($60 billion) due to exchange rate fluctuation.

Adverse weather in both hemispheres wiped five percentage points from reinsurance's net earned premium, with the biggest contributors Winter Storm Kyrill at €390 million ($626 million), the Hunter Valley storms and the UK floods at €60 million ($96 million) each.

But a turbulent final quarter saw the reinsurer's gross written premium down 1.8% to €9.19 billion ($14.744billion) and its investment result fall 14.4% to €1.63 billion ($2.62 billion).

Reinsurance net profit for the quarter was up 60% to €535 million ($875 million) but primary insurance was down 52% to €232 million ($372 million).

The turbulent investment markets have forced the world's largest reinsurer to issue a conservative profit forecast of between €3 billion ($4.8 billion) and €3.4 billion ($5.5 billion) for this year.

Munich Re expects to bring in premium income of between €37.5 billion ($60.2 billion) and €38.5 billion ($61.8 billion) this year, with an overall combined ratio of 97%.