Company Reports

Since the first quarter of this year, Generali has extended its mid-single-digit growth in operating profit to double digits, pushing through company-compiled consensus and leaving the business looking well ahead of our full-year forecasts.

Generali is a multiline insurer that derives around two-fifths of pretax earnings from its home market of Italy. The business has invested significant amounts in data and technology over recent years, and those investments have led to improvements in margins across nonlife insurance. We think in nonlife insurance, the business holds more limited exposure to commercial insurance versus peers and also more limited exposure to insurance written in the Americas. Nonetheless, the company’s investments have resulted in ongoing improvements in its claims ratio, which we think is the essence of good underwriting. Further, the company went on to acquire the nonlife insurance business of Cattolica some years ago, and that acquisition bolstered its market share in its home country. We think the purchase also introduced more health and property insurance.

For the first quarter of 2026, Generali has delivered solid upper-single-digit growth in operating profit. That growth has predominantly been driven by its life business and asset management.

Generali is a multiline insurer that derives around two-fifths of pretax earnings from its home market of Italy. The business has invested significant amounts in data and technology over recent years, and those investments have led to improvements in margins across nonlife. We think in nonlife insurance, the business holds more limited exposure to commercial insurance versus peers and also more limited exposure to insurance written in the Americas. Nonetheless, the company’s investments have resulted in ongoing improvements in its claims ratio, which we think is the essence of good underwriting. Further, the company went on to acquire the nonlife insurance business of Cattolica a some years ago, and that acquisition bolstered its market share in its home country. We think the purchase also introduced more health and property insurance.

Generali reported a pretty nice high-single-digit rise in consolidated operating profit to EUR 8.004 billion in 2025, predominantly driven by a double-digit improvement in property and casualty operating profit, complemented by life. Asset management and holding expenses were a small disappointment.

Generali is a multiline insurer that derives around two-fifths of pretax earnings from its home market of Italy. The business has invested significant amounts in data and technology over recent years, and those investments have led to improvements in margins across nonlife. We think in nonlife insurance, the business holds more limited exposure to commercial insurance versus peers and also more limited exposure to insurance written in the Americas. Nonetheless, the company’s investments have resulted in ongoing improvements in its claims ratio, which we think is the essence of good underwriting. Further, the company went on to acquire the nonlife insurance business of Cattolica a few years ago, and that acquisition bolstered its market share in its home country. We think the purchase also introduced more health and property insurance. Historically, this division has earned above its cost of equity.

Generali announced on Dec. 11 that it and BPCE's Natixis have ended negotiations around joining their respective asset management divisions.

Generali reported a double-digit rise in operating profit to EUR 5.94 billion for the first nine months of 2025. The strong performance was predominantly driven by decent property and casualty top-line growth and better underwriting.

Generali reported broadly in-line financial results for the first half of 2025. While it slightly missed company-compiled consensus estimates on the top line, the EUR 4 billion of operating profit is in line.

Generali is a multiline insurer that derives around two fifths of pretax earnings from its home market of Italy. The business has invested significant amounts in data and technology over recent years and those investments have led to improvements in margins across nonlife. We think in nonlife insurance the business holds more limited exposure to commercial insurance versus peers and also more limited exposure to insurance written in the Americas. Nonetheless, the company’s investments resulted in ongoing improvements in its claims ratio, which we think is the essence of good underwriting. Further, the company went on to acquire the nonlife insurance business of Cattolica a few years ago and that acquisition bolstered its market share in its home country. We think the purchase also introduced more health and property insurance. Historically, this division has earned above its cost of equity.

Over the first quarter of 2025, Generali earned EUR 2.067 billion in group operating profit, broadly in line with company-compiled consensus of EUR 2.033 billion. Gross written premiums at group level were at mid-single digit-percentage points, lower than consensus, with lower life premiums.

Generali is a multiline insurer that derives around two fifths of pretax earnings from its home market of Italy. The business has invested significant amounts in data and technology over recent years and those investments have led to improvements in margins across nonlife. We think in nonlife insurance, versus peers the business holds more limited exposure to commercial insurance and also more limited exposure to insurance written in the Americas. Nonetheless, the company’s investments resulted in ongoing improvements in its claims ratio, which we think is the essence of good underwriting. Further, the company went on to acquire the nonlife insurance business of Cattolica a few years ago and that acquisition bolstered its market share in its home country. We think the purchase also introduced more health and property insurance. Historically, this division has earned above its cost of equity.

We have rolled our model for Generali to incorporate the latest figures for 2024, and in doing so we have revised our forecasts and reflected time value of money.

Mediobanca has outlined in a press release an offer for 100% of the shares of Banca Generali. However, the deal is dependent on over 50% of Mediobanca's shareholders approving a deal at a June 16 meeting and comes on the back of a hostile bid for Mediobanca from Monte dei Paschi di Siena.

Generali's earning net income was EUR 3.724 billion and we think it has delivered a broadly in-line set of results for 2024. Our expectation was for net income of EUR 3.783 billion and company-compiled consensus was marginally higher than this. Technical performance was better than we expected.

Generali is a multiline insurer that derives around two fifths of pretax earnings from its home market of Italy. The business has invested significant amounts in data and technology over recent years and those investments have led to improvements in margins across nonlife. We think in nonlife insurance, versus peers the business holds more limited exposure to commercial insurance and also more limited exposure to insurance written in the Americas. Nonetheless, the company’s investments resulted in ongoing improvements in its claims ratio, which we think is the core of good underwriting. Further, the company went on to acquire the nonlife insurance business of Cattolica a few years ago and that acquisition bolstered its market share in its home country. We think the purchase also introduced more health and property insurance. Under IFRS 4 this division earns above its cost of equity.

Generali has announced it signed a nonbinding memorandum of understanding to form a joint venture BPCE's Natixis in asset management. Each will own a 50% stake in the joint venture with the enlarged group managing EUR 1.9 trillion in assets under management.

The Financial Times has reported that Generali and Natixis are in talks about a potential tie-up between their two asset management businesses, but nothing has been substantiated so far. We know that Natixis is much larger than Generali in terms of the assets it manages, so that would make it more feasible for Natixis to buy Generali’s asset management business, if any sale were to occur. Further, the traffic so far has been long-term savings and life insurers selling their asset management divisions, which happened when AXA Investment Management announced its intended sale to BNP Paribas in August.

Generali's property and casualty business is delivering fair results. The business has written 9.8% more gross premium so far in 2024 than it did over 2023. This rise is mainly from higher motor insurance sales, but excluding Argentina, the rise in written gross premiums in motor is over 10 percentage points lower at 6.3%. The undiscounted 2024 loss ratio is better by around 1.3 percentage points to 65.9% and the impact of natural catastrophes is flat. The EUR 952 million in natural catastrophe claims include weather events in Austria, Central and Eastern Europe, Germany, and Italy. On top of the 50-basis-point improvement in the undiscounted loss ratio, Generali has improved its expense ratio by 90 basis points over the first nine months. These improvements in underwriting have flowed through to EUR 2.2 billion of operating profit, though the lower discounting benefit has been a substantial offset.

Generali has reported net profit for the first six months of EUR 2.05 billion. That is versus our full-year forecast of EUR 3.78 billion, but a bit below the EUR 2.09 billion estimated by company-compiled consensus. The result, so far this year, provides shareholders with a 7% return on equity. The business has delivered a positive performance in life and asset management. Net flows are good within protection and unit-linked, though outflows remain in savings and annuities. The asset and wealth management division has performed well because of the consolidation of Conning Holdings. However, the good performance has been offset by financial results that are worse in property and casualty, and the holding and other business' expenses that are worse than consensus. The operating profit of property and casualty has primarily been hit by higher unwinding of the discount on its liabilities. The holding and other business has been hit by higher long-term technology and incentive plan expenses. Despite all this, we think the results are reasonable and maintain our EUR 25.05 per-share fair value estimate. We consider shares cheap trading in 4-star territory.