Achmea’s operational result increases to €284 million

• Non-Life achieves strong growth of results and combined ratio of 95.8%

• Pension & Life result increased due to improved technical and investment results

• Operational result current underwriting year Health improved

• Growth Achmea Investment Management to €142 billion Assets under Management

• Solid capital position with a solvency level of 195%

• Achmea launches innovation fund with an initial size of €100 million

Willem van Duin, Chairman of Achmea’s Executive Board:
“2019 is the final year of our strategic planning period ‘Delivering Together’. We have taken a good next step in the first half of this year on realising our strategic and financial targets.

From our cooperative background we commit to a healthy, safe and future-proof society. Over the past few months, we have again made good progress. Syntrus Achmea Real Estate & Finance became the first Dutch asset manager to sign up to the ‘Green Deal Healthcare’ and through our healthcare real estate we focus on a safe and sustainable living environment. Zilveren Kruis encourages a healthy lifestyle and is improving patient care by organising an increasing amount of care at home, for patients with heart conditions, COPD or those requiring chemotherapy or immunotherapy. These eHealth solutions lead to fewer hospital admissions as well as lower healthcare expenses. Interpolis and Rabobank offer the ‘Is your home still suitable?’ test to create awareness about independent living when approaching the retirement age and help come up with solutions for now and later. All these initiatives allow us to play a broad and valuable role in the lives of our customers, one that goes beyond just offering insurance. Sustainability is a key part of this and the three international Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are anchored at the heart of our strategy. We recently gave our commitment on the Climate Agreement and, by doing so, demonstrate our duty to take responsibility in tackling the climate change.

Our asset manager Achmea Investment Management is distinctive and successful with socially responsible investment services. In the first half of 2019 these services are implemented for pensioenfonds Horeca & Catering. Assets under Management (AuM) increased to €142 billion and as of 1 January 2020, AuM will increase further due to pensioenfonds Vervoer that selected Achmea Investment Management as overall manager.

As an insurance company, we traditionally provide assistance in the event of setbacks or illness and offer our customers help with prevention and advice. This enables us to prevent a great deal of suffering or loss. Yet the world is changing fast and our customers’ requirements are changing accordingly. We are responding to those changing needs by creating innovative services on top of our insurance policies. For instance, Centraal Beheer offers assistance with odd jobs (KlusHulp), legal problems (Juridische Hulp) and vehicle breakdowns (PechHulp), no subscription necessary. Interpolis is improving traffic safety via AutoModus and WegWijsVR, by prevention of, amongst other things, mobile phone-induced driver distraction. By incentivising the installation of green roofs, Interpolis is also contributing to reducing the nuisance and damage caused by the increasingly high levels of rainfall.

We will continue to develop appealing, innovative services which, in addition to having a major social impact, also add value for Achmea. This is why we will soon launch the Achmea Innovation Fund, which from 1 October 2019 will be able to issue growth capital to companies active in the domains of health, mobility, residential and financial solutions for now, tomorrow and later. The fund will focus on promising initiatives that match our strategic goals, based on up-and-coming technology in the Fintech and Insurtech industries. The ambition is for the fund to grow to an initial size of €100 million.

We have also performed well financially. Over the first half of 2019, we achieved an increase in the operational result to €284 million and an increase in the net profit to €234 million. Gross earned premiums are up slightly, to €17.6 billion, and expenses have decreased. With this cost reduction we have managed to meet our expense reduction target set at the end of 2016 of €200 million. Our focus will of course continue to be on making our business operations as efficient as possible. In doing so, we manage to keep premiums competitive for our customers and achieve results which enables us to reinvest in the best products and services. Our solvency ratio is robust. This means that our customers can rely on our sound financial position, as ought to be expected of an insurer with a cooperative identity.”