SCOR, a leading global reinsurer, announced strong financial results for the fourth quarter of 2024, with all business segments contributing to the positive performance. The company reported a net income of €233 million for the quarter, and an adjusted net income of €235 million, showcasing a significant rebound from previous challenges.
Property and Casualty Performance
The company’s Property and Casualty (P&C) division delivered a combined ratio of 83.1% for the fourth quarter. This result included a natural catastrophe ratio of 6.4%, which was below the full-year ratio of 9.4% and under the budgeted level of 10%. The attritional loss and commission ratio reached 75.9% in Q4, reflecting disciplined reserving practices and solid underlying performance, according to the company.
Following a year-end reserve review, SCOR indicated that all P&C lines are at their best estimate and that reserve resilience has strengthened.
L&H Segment Turns a Corner
The Life and Health (L&H) segment experienced a major turnaround, reporting an insurance service result of €119 million for the fourth quarter. This result reflects CSM amortization and risk adjustment release, partially offset by adverse experience variance from the US. This performance marks a significant recovery for the SCOR unit.
In the second quarter of 2024, SCOR reported a net loss of €308 million, largely due to a €509 million charge following a review of L&H reserves, which led to an insurance service result of -€329 million for the L&H segment. In response to the underperformance, Frieder Knüpling, CEO of SCOR L&H, departed in July 2024. Thierry Léger, CEO of SCOR, temporarily took over leadership of the L&H division to oversee its strategic realignment.
“In L&H, we took decisive actions to restore profitability,” said Léger.
Other Key Financial Highlights
SCOR’s investment portfolio generated a regular income yield of 3.6% in the fourth quarter, supported by favorable reinvestment rates. The Group’s effective tax rate for the quarter was 8%, primarily due to the release of deferred tax asset provisions that were booked in the second and third quarters.
The annualized return on equity for the fourth quarter was 22.8%, or 23% on an adjusted basis. For the full year 2024, SCOR reported a net income of €4 million, or €11 million adjusted, with an annualized return on equity of 0.1%, and 0.2% adjusted. The company attributed the full-year result to the L&H assumption review, which resulted in a pre-tax reduction of €700 million in the insurance service result and €900 million in the contractual service margin.
Group economic value at the end of 2024 stood at €8.6 billion, representing a decrease of 6.3% at constant economics. However, adjusting for one-off impacts, the economic value increased by 9.8% at constant economics. Economic value per share declined to €48, down from €51 at the end of 2023.
SCOR’s solvency ratio, standing at 210% at year-end 2024, is within the company’s target range of 185% to 220% and fully reflects the impact of the L&H assumption review.
The SCOR board has proposed a regular dividend of €1.8 per share for 2024.
