Zurich Insurance Group Sets New Targets After Meeting Existing Ones a Year Early

Zurich Insurance Group AG set new targets for profitability and profit growth for the next three years, after a better-than-expected market environment put it on track to exceed its existing guidance a year ahead of plan.

The insurer pledged to increase core earnings per share at a compound annual growth rate of more than 9% through 2027, and reach a core return on equity of more than 23%. It also aims for cumulative cash remittances of more than $19 billion, compared with $13.5 billion in the previous plan.

The targets “appear to be marginally higher than expected,” Philip Kett and James Pearse, analysts at Jefferies Financial Group Inc., said in a note. Citigroup Inc. analyst James Shuck called the new plan “impressive.”

Chief Executive Officer Mario Greco has used bolt-on acquisitions to help bolster growth and compete with rivals such as Allianz SE and AXA SA. The new targets are the “most ambitious” in the insurer’s history, he said in a statement Thursday.

Shares of the insurer rose 1.8% at 9:06 a.m. in Zurich, bringing gains this year to 23%.

Zurich this year agreed to buy American International Group’s global travel insurance business, as well as a majority stake in India’s Kotak General Insurance Company Ltd., making it the first foreign insurer to enter India after regulations were relaxed three years ago.

Photograph: Zurich Insurance Group AG building in Zurich, Switzerland, Photo credit: Alessandro Della Bella/Bloomberg