HELSINKI (Reuters) – Finnish insurer Sampo on Wednesday reported a stronger-than-expected rise in third-quarter pretax profit, aided by a strong performance from its insurance subsidiary If and gains from selling a stake in Nordea bank.
“Our largest business If P&C reported a record-breaking third-quarter combined ratio of 80.2 percent,” Chief Executive Torbjorn Magnusson said in a statement, referring to a key industry measure.
July-September pretax profit rose 30% to 632 million euros ($732 million) from 485 million last year, beating the 594.2 million expected by analysts in a Refinitiv poll.
The third-quarter group combined ratio decreased 2.3 percentage points to 80.8%, beating analysts’ consensus estimate of 81.5% in a company-provided poll. A ratio below 100 means an insurer earns more in premiums than it pays out in claims.
Sampo gained 144 million euros from selling shares in Finland’s Nordea bank in September. Sampo has said it will significantly reduce ownership in the bank as it focuses on insurance business.
Sampo has further reduced its Nordea holding to 6.1%, but remains its largest owner.
In October, Sampo began a programme to buy back 750 million euros of shares and has said it plans another buyback programme for next year.
The insurer also said its board would propose an extraordinary dividend of at least 2 euros per share.
($1 = 0.8632 euros)
(Reporting by Essi Lehto; Editing by Mark Potter)
