MAPFRE shareholder meeting: “We're helping our policyholders quickly overcome the DANA disaster”

MAPFRE held its regular shareholder meeting following the release of quarterly results, an ongoing transparency initiative the Group has maintained for five years. This time, the primary focus was on the extensive damage caused by the DANA storm, which has drawn significant attention from investors.

Group Deputy CFO José Luis Jiménez said, “From the outset, we have mobilized our full resources to support our policyholders and help them recover from this disaster as swiftly as possible.”

He highlighted that Fundación MAPFRE has launched a campaign to raise funds “for those who have lost everything.” “We are fully focused on this. It's the group’s way of doing our part,” he emphasized.

MAPFRE has expressed its solidarity with all those affected and has set up two dedicated helplines: 900101012 and 918366279. As of November 4, the company has registered 26,000 claims from its policyholders in the impacted areas.

Felipe Navarro, MAPFRE’s Corporate Manager of Capital Markets and Treasury, added that much of the coverage for such disasters in Spain is provided by the Insurance Compensation Consortium, which handles extraordinary claims. “Claims are filed with the Consortium. In addition to addressing other urgent needs, we are working closely with our policyholders to submit these claims.”

These remarks were made during the presentation of MAPFRE’s results for the first nine months of 2024 to shareholders, which recently took place with 86 in-person attendees and 16 participating online. This transparency initiative has been held for the past five years.

The Deputy CFO emphasized the 36% increase in profit, which reached €744 million. This result includes a €90 million impairment on the goodwill of Verti Germany, bringing the attributable profit to €654 million, a 39% increase compared to the first nine months of 2023.

The combined ratio for the Non-Life segment stood at 94.8% in September, improving by two percentage points compared to the same period last year. Specifically, the Property & Casualty segment achieved a combined ratio of 81.1%, Health and Accidents reached 99.8%, and Automobile stood at 104.2%. Meanwhile, the combined ratio for the Life Risk segment was 85.4%.

Navarro emphasized the significant reductions in the combined ratio observed in some markets, though Iberia is recovering more slowly. He also pointed out that a combined ratio above 100% doesn’t always indicate a loss, as financial income must also be factored in. In the first nine months of 2024, financial income grew by 3%, reaching €25.345 billion.

Regarding MAPFRE’s portfolio, Leandra Clark, the company’s Director of Investor Relations, highlighted that it remains defensive and is “well-diversified”. By the end of September, the portfolio had grown to €45.406 billion, a 3.3% increase. Of this, 83.2% was invested in fixed income, 8.1% in equities, 4.1% in real estate, and the remaining 4.6% in cash.

The strong results have enabled the Group to raise its dividend to 15.5 cents per share, meaning a total of €477 million will be distributed to shareholders based on this year’s performance. “These results validate the strategic direction outlined in the plan approved at the General Shareholders’ Meeting in March. All financial indicators are on track, and they also allow us to honor our commitment to shareholders,” emphasized Jiménez.

Clark also highlighted the solid performance of the stock, which now outpaces both the IBEX 35 and the Stoxx Insurance 600 index. As a result, the market capitalization “is increasingly aligning with the book value.”