Allianz's first quarter marginally beat expectations, characterized by better results in property and casualty and the holding; the better holding numbers have continued in the second quarter, this time more convincingly exceeding expectations and driven by asset management and life and health.
Despite the lack of economic profits, Allianz has one of the best-performing property and casualty insurance businesses in our European insurance coverage.
Bears
In what appears to be a solidly performing property and casualty division, Allianz hasn’t been able to convincingly earn above its cost of equity.
Allianz was founded as a transport and accident insurance firm in 1890 by Carl von Thieme and Wilhelm von Finck, the founders of Munich Re. It took the company five years to expand into Europe and North America and subsequently list in Berlin. After World War I, individuals were confronted with the loss of wealth, life, and security, and Allianz founded a life business in the 1920s. In the years after World War II, Allianz’s foreign assets were seized, and it lost its foreign business. By relocating its head office from Berlin to Munich in 1948, Allianz began the long road of rebuilding its domestic insurance business. It took 20 years for the company to reacquire its prior foreign interests, starting in Austria. It became the largest European insurer in the postwar boom era.