Dividend Cuts?

A key question for investors is whether Zurich will cut its dividend and the way it will use approximately $2 billion in excess capital that it had earlier than the brand new profit caution. at the same time as chief monetary Officer George Quinn has said he could choose to spend the cash on acquisitions, Zurich could also return it to shareholders.

“Mario Greco could be genuinely high quality for the stock,” Georg Marti, an analyst at Zuercher Kantonalbank, said earlier than the appointment changed into introduced. “Greco is a doer and buyers would consider him to attain a turnaround quickly.”

The Swiss insurer has paid out 17 francs a share each 12 months because 2010 and has the best dividend yield amongst Swiss shares and european coverage agencies. Critics have questioned the enterprise’s ability to maintain the dividend inside the face of near- zero sales increase during the last  years.

The enterprise published a seventy nine percent drop in 0.33-area profit after reserving an running lack of $183 million in standard coverage. That meditated an envisioned $275 million in claims from the mid-August explosions in China’s port city of Tianjin and $367 million had to plug a hole in reserves for especially North American vehicle and construction liabilities.

The agency deserted its offer for RSA in September, announcing it desired to get the enterprise returned in form before pursuing similarly acquisitions. Kristof Terryn took over as CEO of the overall insurance unit that same month, replacing Michael Kerner.