PARIS, Feb 23 (Reuters) – French insurer AXA (AXAF.PA) posted lower-than-expected full-year earnings on Thursday because the rise in rates of interest weighed on the valuation of its bond property however raised its 2023 targets.
Europe’s second-biggest insurer after Germany’s Allianz (ALVG.DE) stated internet earnings fell by 8% year-on-year to six.7 billion euros ($7.12 billion) in 2022.
This missed the 7.22 billion-euro consensus of 15 analyst estimates compiled by Refinitiv. Gross revenues over the 12 months had been up 2% to 102.3 billion euros, according to the Refinitiv analyst consensus estimate.
“The 12 months 2022 was marked by main political and financial occasions — the battle in Ukraine, the power disaster, inflation — all of which have made the setting troublesome and unsure,” stated Frederic de Courtois, the deputy chief government, in a name with journalists.
The Paris-based firm stated the autumn in worth of its bond property minimize 482 million euros from its internet earnings final 12 months, as a common rise in rates of interest hit the valuation of the corporate’s bond property, whose costs decline when rates of interest rise.
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AXA but raised its 2023 steering, saying it now focused an underlying earnings per share progress above 7%, up from a earlier goal of a progress within the excessive finish of its 3% to 7% vary by 2023.
It additionally introduced a share buy-back programme of as much as 1.1 billion euros this 12 months and a dividend of 1.70 per share, up 10% from 2021.
($1 = 0.9416 euros)
(This story has been refiled so as to add dropped phrase ‘decline’ in paragraph 5)
Reporting by Mathieu Rosemain and Matthieu Protard, enhancing by Tassilo Hummel
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