Swiss Re: shares down slightly after 'lacklustre' results

(CercleFinance.com) - Swiss Re, the world's second-largest reinsurer, said on Friday that first-quarter net profit fell due to a change in US GAAP accounting, with the group missing the consensus.


After a negative pre-tax impact of 280 million dollars due to the change, the Zurich-based firm posted first-quarter net income of 457 million dollars, compared with 656 million dollars a year ago and the consensus of 507 million dollars.

Gross premiums written over the quarter increased 13.1% to 11.5 billion dollars, helped by robust growth in Asia and EMEA, the group said.

Swiss Re also said it would launch its public share buy-back program of up to 1 billion Swiss francs on 7 May.

The Zurich-listed share was down 0.2% after these results, which were deemed as "lacklustre" by analysts.

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