Ageas' Interesting First-Quarter 2022 Results, Ahead at Group but an Operational Poor Performance

Ageas has reported an interesting set of first-quarter 2022 results that look strong at group but mask an underlying poor performance. Only one division has reported well—Belgium life. We believe this is cloaking poor operational performances within the remaining divisions. The company’s local life unit has reported a 40% rise in net income attributable to shareholders to EUR 97.7 million. This seems to be the result of a successful sales campaign across both unit-linked and traditional products in the broker channel. Margins are also up in these two lines, though within the traditional product this appears to be due to gains harvesting. Within unit-linked, the business does seem to have garnered a better technical margin. The local non-life result is down 24% to EUR 24.1 million, and that is on by and large flat premiums but a deterioration in underwriting within motor and home insurance, respective claims ratios rising by 14.0 and 17.7 percentage points.