MUNICH RE WITHDRAWS PROFIT GUIDANCE AS COVID-19 CLAIMS HIT Q1

Munich Re has withdrawn its 2020 profit guidance and suspended its share buy-back programme following a “considerable claims burden” in the first quarter, including event cancelation losses resulting from Covid-19. As a result, the German reinsurance and insurance group now anticipates profits in the “low three-digit million euro” range for the first three months of 2020, compared with €633m in the same period of 2019. “Owing to the great uncertainty concerning the macroeconomic and financial impacts of Covid-19, from today’s perspective – and assuming a burden from major man-made and natural-catastrophe losses that is otherwise in line with expectations – Munich Re will not attain its profit guidance of €2.8bn for 2020 as a whole,” it said. Implementation of the 2020/2021 share buy-back programme announced on February 26, 2020, will be discontinued until further notice.