Zurich Life Ireland reports 18% fall in sales

Zurich Life Ireland, the company formerly known as Eagle Star Life, has reported an 18 per cent fall in new life and pensions sales for the first quarter.

The company said its total the annual premium equivalent value of new business – a benchmark measurement used to gauge activity in the industry – fell to €40.2 million, down compared to the €49 million during the first three months of 2008.

In a statement this morning the insurer said it outperformed a 43 per cent market decline in the first quarter of this year.

According to Zurich Life Ireland this growth helped lift its market share by 43 per cent to 14 per cent, compared with last year.

The insurer said sales of protection-related products, including life insurance cover, serious illness cover and mortgage protection cover were up 27 per cent.

Chief executive Michael Brennan said the company had achieved market share growth in all product categories.

Zurich Life Ireland’s parent Zurich Financial Services today reported a 75 per cent drop in first-quarter net profit, falling well short of expectations after the group suffered $1 billion in realised losses and impairments.

Net profit fell to $362 million, the group said today, far behind the average forecast of $639 million in a Reuters poll of 10 analysts. The insurer said it expects 2009 to remain challenging.

Chief financial officer Dieter Wemmer told journalists on a conference call business in April was largely in line with the first three months of the year.

The group had $1 billion of realised losses and impairments, including $500 million of equity writedowns. The realised losses, including net revaluations of trading securities, were split between equity and debt securities, the group said.

ZFS agreed to buy the division from AIG last month for $1.9 billion, making it the third-largest US personal line insurer.

The company's combined ratio, which measures costs and claims as a percentage of premium income, was 95.8 per cent at the end of the first quarter, against 94.6 per cent a year earlier. The lower the number, the higher Zurich's underwriting profitability.

Swiss Re's combined ratio fell to 90.2 per cent in the first quarter from 96.4 per cent.

Additional reporting Reuters