Munich Re announced plans to become a “power player” in the global specialty insurance market, supported by a new reporting structure to detail the unit’s financial performance separately from its property and casualty (P&C) reinsurance operations. During a media briefing on Wednesday, Munich Re’s CEO, Joachim Wenning, highlighted the significance of this segment. He stated that global specialty insurance currently contributes over 30% of the group’s P&C revenue, encompassing brands such as HSB, American Modern, and its Munich Re Specialty North America and Global Markets businesses.
“We decided to show it as a separate segment. This will provide more transparency – we will show you where the successful driving forces are, and we’ll also show you less cyclical or less volatile business segments where we have seen this growth,” Wenning explained.
Since 2022, Munich Re’s global specialty insurance business has demonstrated a compound annual growth rate of 11.5%. In 2024, insurance revenue reached €8.8 billion, and the company projects this figure to climb to approximately €10 billion by the end of 2025. Despite this growth, the global specialty combined ratio experienced a downturn in 2024, reaching 93.6%, which is an 8.8 percentage point increase from 85.4% in 2023. Munich Re attributed this to major losses and conservative reserving, although it also noted that the underlying performance remained strong. Due to this, the firm aims for a combined ratio of about 90% for 2025.
Wenning further commented, “Global specialty insurance is a fast-growing segment. We are going to control this business like a unit, and use the business platform in order to achieve further synergisms.” He added, “We want to make use of the volatility in this business and lower it successively, in order to have a better hedge against the normal P&C portfolio which we have.”
In addition to expanding its presence in existing specialty products, Munich Re intends to introduce new products and broaden its business outside North America. The larger P&C reinsurance segment achieved insurance revenue of €28.3 billion for the financial year, an increase from €27.1 billion in 2023. The net result of P&C reinsurance increased by 30% year-over-year, reaching €3.20 billion, compared to €2.49 billion in the previous year.
