For the second quarter of 2012, risk and insurance brokerage service provider AON reported total revenues of USD 2.82 billion, compared to USD 2.81 billion for the same quarter of the previous year.

Swiss ZURICH Insurance Group recorded USD 1.1 billion in business operating profit during the second quarter of 2012, pushing its profit for the first half of the year to USD 2.5 billion. At the same time, the company reported for 1H 2012 a net profit of USD 2.2 billion, up 13% compared with the previous year, due to activities in emerging countries, while the first-half combined ratio for the Swiss-based insurer was 94.9%.

Gross premiums written by PZU Group in the first half of 2012 amounted PLN 8.25 billion (~ EUR 1.93 billion), 7.5% up y-o-y. Net income from investment activities increased by more than 41.2%, yielding the first half of 2012 a record 10.6% higher net profit of PLN 1.72 billion (~ EUR 400 million). PZU remains leader of the Polish insurance market, also in terms of profitability, with a return on equity (ROE) was in this period reaching close to 26.8%, up by 2pp y-o-y.

In the first six months of 2012, the TRIGLAV Group earned a total of EUR 523.6 million in insurance and co-insurance premium and recorded a 22.1% profit growth, up to EUR 41.6 million. The disclosed net profit of Zavarovalnica TRIGLAV as the controlling company was EUR 25.0 million. Zavarovalnica TRIGLAV will participate in the capital increase of ABANKA subject to the fulfilment of conditions precedent.

In the first half of 2012, UNIQA Group increased its profit on ordinary activities by 43.2%, to EUR 106.5 million, while the consolidated profit improved by 67.1% y-o-y to EUR 57.3 million. Doubling the number to customers by 2020, to 15 million and improving its results by up to EUR 400 million until 2015 as against 2010 are the current targets of the Group. "We are on track. However, we must press ahead with our efforts, as the economic conditions are unlikely to provide any tailwind in the second half of the year", said Andreas BRANDSTETTER, CEO of UNIQA .

ACE's net income increased 54% during the first six months of 2012, on strong current accident year underwriting results and low catastrophe losses. The Swiss based insurer reported net income of USD 1.3 billion (or USD 3.80 per share), compared to USD 844 million (USD 2.48 per share) for the same period last year. ACE improved its combined ratio to 88.9% for 1H2012 from 92.7%, a year earlier. For the same period, GWP increased to USD 10.4 billion from USD 10.1 billion in 1H2011.

SWISS Re reports a net profit of USD 83 million for the second quarter of 2012. According to the press release, "the result is impacted by the sale at a loss of USD 1.0 billion of the ADMIN Re US business". At the same time, Property & Casualty Reinsurance delivered a strong result "from lower Nat Cat losses and positive prior-year development", while Life & Health Reinsurance net income "benefited from realized gains".

CEE markets' contribution to VIG-VIENNA Insurance Group's results grew, both in GWP and profit terms, in 1H2012. Thus, premiums unwritten in the CEE markets represent 53.8% of the total group's volume, 3pp more y-o-y, amounting EUR 2.84 billion. Also, the contribution of the CEE markets to the overall profit before takes figure grew from 46.5% in 1H2011, to 49.4% in 1H2012. In absolute terms, the profit before takes recorded by the CEE subsidiaries of VIG amounted EUR 148.91 million, 13.6% up as y-o-y. VIG companies are markets leaders in Austria and 3 of the 9 core CEE markets: Czech Republic, Slovakia and Romania. "This proves once more that we are pursuing the right strategy as the largest international insurance group in this region", said Peter HAGEN, Chairman of the Managing Board and CEO of VIENNA Insurance Group.

The French insurer GROUPAMA reported a net loss of EUR 87 million in the first six months of the year. At the same time, the group posted revenues of EUR 9.34 billion, down 2.8% from a year earlier, excluding asset sales and acquisitions. In property and casualty insurance business the premiums amounted to EUR 5.05 billion (+4.02%), while in life and health segment, premiums written decreased by 10% to EUR 4.15 billion. As for financial and banking activities, revenues totaled EUR 134 million, down 9%.

Australia's insurer QBE announced a 13% rise in first-half net profit to USD 760 million and expected its full year 2012 insurance profit margin to be more than 12%.

UNIQA Group is considering the possibility of buying a 51% stake in Zavarovalnica MARIBOR, one of the main players on the Slovenian insurance market. Norbert HELLER, spokesman for the Austrian group, confirmed UNIQA's interest in this potential acquisition for several financial newspapers from Austria and Slovenia. He also specified that UNIQA is waiting to get detailed information in order to properly evaluate "the attractiveness of this potential acquisition target".

TALANX Group closed the first half of 2012 with an operating profit of EUR 855 million - increasing in absolute value by EUR 424 million year-on-year. At the same time, the group's net income went up 65% to EUR 354 million.

Higher underlying earnings driven by growth, cost reductions and favorable currency movements, were reported for 2Q2012 by the Dutch financial group AEGON. According to its latest press release, underlying earnings increased by 10%, to EUR 443 million. Yet, underlying earnings from New Markets decreased 9% to EUR 64 million, mainly as a result of the lower underlying earnings from CEE. "Despite the challenges of historically low interest rates, continued market volatility and stagnant growth affecting the world's leading economies, AEGON's businesses delivered a strong set of results in the second quarter, as measured by both sales and earnings", said Alex WYNAENDTS, CEO, AEGON.

Total revenues of ALLIANZ Group increased to EUR 55.2 billion in 1H2012 from EUR 54.5 billion in the first half of 2011, while the operating profit reached EUR 4.7 billion and the Net Income went up by 39%, to EUR 2.8 billion. Capital position remained strong and balance sheet strength further improved, leading to the management decision to maintain the operating profit target for 2012 to EUR 8.2 billion. "Our consistently good results show that we weather the difficult market conditions very well. Our operative business is stable and remains on course," said Michael Diekmann, CEO of Allianz SE.

ING Group announced an underlying net profit for the second quarter of 2012 of EUR 1.04 billion, 17.8% less compared to the same quarter in 2011. For the first half of 2012, underlying net profit was down 36.4% to EUR 1.59 billion compared to 2011.

Commenting the 1H2012 results, Henri de CASTRIES, Chairman and CEO of AXA, said: "AXA posted a solid set of earnings, illustrating the resilience of our underlying fundamentals in a challenging environment. We benefited from our significant exposure to Property & Casualty and Protection & Health, businesses which are less sensitive to financial markets". The Group's Underlying Earnings increased to EUR 2.3 billion, stable on a comparable basis, while the adjusted earnings remained stable, at EUR 2.4 billion . Due to non-repeat of exceptional gains on disposals in 2011, AXA's net income fall at EUR 2.6 billion, as compared to EUR 4.0 billion in 1H11.

KBC Group ended 1H2012 with an underlying result of to EUR 827 million, compared to EUR 1,186 million for the corresponding period in 2011. Excluding all exceptional and non-operating items, KBC ended the second quarter of 2012 with an underlying net profit of EUR 372 million, compared with EUR 455 million in the previous quarter and EUR 528 million in the corresponding quarter of 2011.

The CEE subsidiaries of GENERALI registered in 1H2012 an aggregate dynamic outperforming the other areas of operation growth rates, both for life and non-life insurance, as the financial results recently published by the Italian Group show. GENERALI Group closed the first half with an improvement in net profit to EUR 842 million (+4.5%, EUR 806 million 1H2011), and strong progress in the second quarter (+44.5% from 2Q2011). The Group's strategic focus on the development of its proprietary networks and product innovation fuelled growth in total gross premiums to EUR 35,6 million (+2%), of which 73% came from outside Italy.

MARSH & MCLENNAN Companies reported USD 329 million net profit for 2Q2012, a 17% increase from USD 282 million reported a year earlier. For the six months ended June 30, 2012, income from continuing operations was USD 693 million, compared with USD 605 million in 2011.

In the second quarter of 2012, MUNICH Re achieved a consolidated profit of EUR 812 million, EUR 74 million more compared with the same period last year. "As in the first quarter of the year, underwriting business performed well and the investment result showed a marked improvement on the same period of the previous year", showed the press release.