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Munich Re slashes profit prediction

Munich Re is blaming “turmoil on capital markets” for a drastic lowering of its second-quarter profit forecast. And the giant German reinsurer now expects its profit for this year to be below the previously expected €3-3.4 billion ($4.9-5.6 billion), “but still well above €2 billion ($3.3 billion)”.

CFO Jorg Schneider says the capital markets turmoil has led to “an appreciable reduction” in the group’s first-half result.

Quoting “very provisional key figures”, he says Munich Re’s consolidated profit for the second quarter will total around €600 million ($988 million), compared with €1.15 billion ($1.9 billion) for the corresponding period last year.

There are plenty of factors getting in the way of a better result. Mr Schneider says share prices have fallen substantially since the beginning of the year, with European sharemarkets showing falls of up to 24%.

“Fixed-interest securities and currency parities have also been subject to exceptionally high volatility,” he said.