Generali doubles dividend after 2013 profit increase
MILAN (Reuters) - Generali proposed to more than double its dividend on Wednesday after posting the Italian insurer's highest full-year net profit in six years.
The group proposed a dividend of 0.45 euros ($0.63) per share after announcing that net profit rose to 1.915 billion euros from 94 million euros a year earlier, slightly lower than a Thomson Reuters SmartEstimate of 2.127 billion euros.
Net profit for the fourth quarter was 324 million euros, rebounding from a loss of more than 1 billion euros in 2012.
Europe's third-largest insurer by market capitalisation said that its closely watched Solvency I ratio stood at about 150 percent at the end of February, well below what analysts said was an average of around 200 percent for rivals Allianz , Axa and Zurich .
"Capital remains the main issue for the group," analysts at Banca IMI said in a note to clients ahead of the results.
The insurer has been selling non-core assets to focus on its insurance business and boost its capital base, but it has not yet been able to find a buyer for Swiss banking unit BSI.
Generali said on Wednesday that it had taken a 217 million euro writedown on BSI's book value.
The company said the positive results were entirely attributable to its operating performance rather than one-off items because gains made on its stake in the Bank of Italy and from disposals in the United States and Mexico were completely offset by writedowns on BSI, a share in financial holding Telco and other items.
(Reporting by Lisa Jucca; Editing by David Goodman)
