By Marta Serafinko and Natalia Siniawski
(Reuters) -Spanish insurer Mapfre said on Wednesday its net profit rose around 30% in 2024, slightly beating forecasts, thanks to its non-life business despite the cost of weather-linked disasters in Europe and Brazil.
The company’s net profit surged to 902 million euros ($935 million) from 692 million euros recorded a year earlier. Analysts expected a net profit of 875 million euros, according to LSEG.
The insurer managed to raise its profit despite the cost of deadly floods in Valencia, Spain, in late October, which had a negative impact of 34 million euros on its bottom line. Devastating floods in Rio Grande do Sul region in Brazil and storms in Europe meant another combined 82-million euro cost to Mapfre.
However, shares in Mapfre fell around 2% in early trading as investors booked profits following the stock’s outperformance of the European sector so far this year, analyst Carlos Peixoto from Caixabank BPI told Reuters.
The stock was the blue-chip index IBEX 35’s worst performer on Wednesday.
Mapfre’s annual net profit also included a 90 million euro writedown on the value of Verti, its auto insurance unit in Germany, booked in the third quarter.
Mapfre’s Latin America business contributed the most to the group’s earnings with a 408-million euro net profit, 9.2% more than in 2023.
Mapfre’s board will propose to raise the total dividend paid from 2024 earnings to 0.16 euro per share, up almost 7% from the previous year.
($1 = 0.9652 euros)
(Reporting by Marta Serafinko and Natalia Siniawski in Gdansk, editing by Inti Landauro and Emelia Sithole-Matarise)
