Munich, May 12, 2026, 10:22 CEST
- Munich Re’s first-quarter net profit rose 57% to €1.714 billion, helped by lower large losses.
- The reinsurer cut April renewal business by 18.5% as risk-adjusted prices fell 3.1%.
- Shares dropped in Frankfurt morning trade as investors focused on weaker revenue and pricing pressure.
Munich Re shares fell on Tuesday after the German reinsurer reported a sharp rise in first-quarter profit but pulled back from new business in a softer market for reinsurance, the insurance that insurers buy to protect themselves against large claims. Net profit rose to €1.714 billion from €1.094 billion a year earlier, roughly in line with analyst expectations, and the company reaffirmed its full-year target.
The issue for investors was not the quarter just reported. It was what April renewals said about pricing power after several strong years for reinsurers, when catastrophe losses and scarce capacity had pushed prices higher. Munich Re said business written in the April round fell to €2.0 billion, down 18.5%, while risk-adjusted prices — prices after allowing for changes in loss risk and inflation — declined 3.1%.
The stock fell as much as just over 5% to €473.70 and was later down about 4% in Frankfurt trading, finanzen.net reported, putting Munich Re at its lowest level since November 2024. The move came even as Barclays kept an “Overweight” rating, a positive call that implies expected outperformance, with a €606 price target. Finanzen
Munich Re’s profit was lifted by much lower large-loss claims. The property-casualty reinsurance combined ratio, a measure of claims and costs as a share of revenue where below 100% means underwriting profit, improved to 66.8% from 83.9% a year earlier. Major-loss spending in that segment fell to €130 million from €1.008 billion, after the 2025 quarter had been hit by Los Angeles wildfires.
Chief Financial Officer Andrew Buchanan said Munich Re had made “an excellent start to 2026” and was “fully on track” to reach its €6.3 billion full-year profit target. He added that “slightly lower prices” at the April property-casualty reinsurance renewals did not change the broader picture, saying prices remained favourable and the portfolio quality was high. MarketScreener
Revenue was less clean. Insurance revenue from contracts issued fell to €15.018 billion from €15.811 billion, mainly because of adverse currency translation effects, while the operating result rose to €2.230 billion from €1.465 billion. Munich Re’s solvency ratio stood at 292%, well above its Solvency II target of more than 200%; Solvency II is the European capital regime used to measure an insurer’s ability to absorb losses.
Barclays analyst Ivan Bokhmat wrote that Munich Re had done well on several important metrics, including the combined ratio, but said revenue development was much weaker than expected and would probably draw attention. He also noted that the 3.1% renewal price decline was at the better end of his own estimate, while the 18.5% drop in business volume was far steeper.
The peer comparison added to the pressure. Hannover Re, Munich Re’s smaller German rival, said on Monday that first-quarter net income rose 47.9% to €710.6 million and that it generated 18.8% premium growth in April renewals, even with a 3.6% risk-adjusted price decline. CEO Clemens Jungsthöfel said price pressure still had “the upper hand” in property-casualty reinsurance, but Hannover Re had expanded where its profitability requirements were met. Hannover Re
Munich Re said it had deliberately not renewed or written business that failed to meet its required prices, terms or conditions, with falling prices also reducing volume. April renewals were concentrated in Japan and India and accounted for about 11% of Munich Re’s total property-casualty reinsurance business.
The group’s investment result rose to €1.682 billion from €1.323 billion, helped by a better result from fair-value changes despite capital-market volatility. ERGO, Munich Re’s primary insurance arm, contributed €235 million to net profit, slightly below the €241 million posted a year earlier.
There were also conflict-related claims. Munich Re said claims arising from the Iran war were about €90 million, with roughly €60 million tied to Global Specialty Insurance and about €30 million to property-casualty reinsurance. That hit was modest beside the improvement in catastrophe losses, but it shows why the guidance still carries caveats.
The risk is that the benign claims quarter does not repeat while pricing keeps easing. Munich Re said its 2026 targets remain subject to uncertainty from geopolitical and macroeconomic developments, major losses staying within normal bounds, and no severe swings in currency or capital markets, tax conditions or one-off effects.
