By Andrey Sychev and Alexander Hübner
(Reuters) -Allianz, one of Europe’s biggest insurers, has raised its three-year financial targets after outperforming its key goals for this year, the company said on Tuesday.
Shares in Allianz fell 1.3% by 0832 GMT.
The operator of the PIMCO brand sees operating profit rising by three billion euros from the expected 15.5 billion euros this year to hit 18.5 billion euros ($19.51 billion) in 2027.
For 2024, the insurer targeted operating profit of between 13.8 billion and 15.8 billion euros.
“Our focus for this next phase will be on translating the success of our customer-centric strategy (…) into even higher sustainable, capital-efficient growth for our shareholders,” Allianz Chief Executive Oliver Baete said in a statement to Capital Markets Day.
The financial services group sees the property and casualty division as the main earnings growth driver in the next few years.
By 2027, Allianz expects earnings per share to rise between 7 and 9% from the current 25 euros per share, the statement said, up from the 5-7% range it forecast for the previous three years through 2024.
It also expects a return on equity of at least 17%, up from the 13% expected in the prior three-year period.
The firm sees annual revenue growth of 6 to 7% for its property-casualty insurance division, potentially bringing an operating profit of 9.5 billion euros by 2027.
Operating profit in Allianz’s life and health insurance unit is projected to reach 6 billion euros by 2027, while its asset management business is expected to post a 4-billion-euro profit by that time.
Late on Monday, Allianz said it plans to distribute at least three-quarters of its net profit to shareholders via dividends and share buybacks over the next three years.
($1 = 0.9483 euros)
(Reporting by Andrey Sychev and Alexander Huebner, editing by Rachel More and Louise Heavens)
