Allianz 3Q Net Profit Falls, Pimco Posts Net Inflows for Fifth Consecutive Quarter -- Update

Allianz SE (ALV.XE) said late Thursday that its third-quarter net profit recorded a double-digit drop, hit by high natural-catastrophe claims, but its U.S. fund manager Pacific Investment Management Co. continued to post net inflows.

The German insurer said net profit fell 17% to 1.57 billion euros ($1.82 billion) compared with the same period last year. Operating profit was EUR2.48 billion compared with EUR3.00 billion a year earlier, while revenue slipped 2.1% to EUR28.3 billion, the company said.

Analysts had expected the company to post net profit of EUR1.53 billion.

The company said the decline in profit was mainly due to a EUR529 million loss from natural catastrophes.

Claims from natural catastrophe weighed on the company's property-and-casualty business's operating profit, which fell 28% to EUR1.04 billion, while operating profit at Allianz's life-and-health segment declined 10.3% to EUR1.07 billion.

Allianz's U.S. fund manager Pacific Investment Management Co. posted third-party net inflows of about EUR29 billion, taking the year-to-date third-party net inflow to EUR101 billion. This is the fifth consecutive quarter with inflows. Pimco went through a difficult period after the departure of co-founder Bill Gross in 2014, which sparked an outflow of money.

Operating profit at the company's asset-management business as a whole declined 2.7% to EUR588 million.

Allianz said it expects its 2017 operating profit to be "in the upper half of the target range of 10.8 billion euros, plus or minus 500 million euros."

"The group absorbed claims stemming from hurricanes, storms and earthquakes in the quarter and still increased operating earnings in the nine-month period," Chief Executive Oliver Bate said.

Allianz also announced a share-buyback program of up to EUR2 billion, expected to be executed in the first half of 2018.

Repurchased shares will be cancelled, Allianz said, adding that "the implementation of the share-buyback program is subject to maintaining a sustainable Solvency II ratio of Allianz Group above 160 percent."

Write to Pietro Lombardi at pietro.lombardi@dowjones.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

November 10, 2017 03:10 ET (08:10 GMT)