Polish top insurer PZU performed better expected despite the strong impact of the September flood losses

21 November 2024 — Daniela GHETU
Poland's top insurer PZU reported a nearly 18% drop in its third-quarter profit due to a high number of claims for flood-related damages, though it still beat market expectations, REUTERS reported.

Its net profit fell to PLN 1.22 billion (USD 296.9 million) from PLN 1.48 billion last year. However, the figure remains higher than the one forecasted by the analysts polled by the company (PLN 1.09 billion on average).

Costs of insurance services, which were the main reason behind the y-o-y decline, rose almost 26% in the same period to PLN 6.8 billion. In the first nine months of 2024 they reached PLN 18.8 billion, a nearly 10% increase from 2023.

This surge was mainly attributed to Poland suffering its most severe floods in over twenty years in September, which prompted a significant mobilization of funds for recovery and reconstruction efforts. The worst flood left many towns in southwestern Poland submerged, and the government had said it would free up funds from the budget and use European Union cash in the recovery effort. Furthermore, because Poland has a substantially higher than average housing insurance coverage rate in the region, the impact on the insurance business is projected to be rather severe.

From Sept. 12 to Nov. 20, PZU processed more than 48,000 flood damage claims from customers, issuing decisions in more than 46,000 of them, and paying out almost PLN 400 million to the victims.

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