By Ulrike Dauer
FRANKFURT-- Allianz SE on Friday said it was more confident
about full-year targets, shrugging off continued weakness at its
bond-fund management business, Pacific Investment Management Co.,
after reporting higher profit for the second quarter,
Europe's largest insurer by market value said low claims payouts
and a one-time disposal gain boosted earnings.
Allianz said it was on track to reach operating profit of
EUR10.8 billion ($11.8 billion) for the full year, which marks the
upper end of its full-year target range. After the first six months
it had reached EUR5.70 billion of that.
In the quarter, operating profit--Allianz's main yardstick--rose
2.6% to EUR2.84 billion. It fell short of the forecast rise to
EUR2.92 billion as an improvement in property and casualty
insurance wasn't enough to offset a weaker contribution, especially
from its asset-management business, which includes Pimco, the
world's biggest bond-fund manager, and smaller peer Allianz Global
Investors.
The asset-management segment's contribution to the group's
quarterly operating profit fell 25% to EUR505 million, down from
EUR676 million and shy of the forecast EUR570 million. This follows
a 14% decline in the first quarter.
Pimco's weakness has been a drag on group earnings since last
year's turbulent management shuffle that culminated in the
departure of co-founder and chief investment officer Bill Gross in
September. As investors continue to pull their funds, especially
from the flagship Total Return Fund, Pimco's net asset outflows
weakened the quarterly results, though they have eased since the
beginning of the year.
Nonetheless, it is too early to give any all-clear. At Pimco,
84% of third-party assets under management outperformed their
benchmarks on a trailing three-year basis and before fees. Although
that remains an excellent figure, it is lower than the 89% in the
same quarter a year ago and below the 87% in the first quarter.
Pimco faces another possible headache after the U.S. Securities
and Exchange Commission said it may bring civil charges over
valuations in a smallish exchange-traded fund that was once managed
by Mr. Gross.
Still, Allianz confirmed its full-year operating profit target
for the business. The decline in the asset-management result was as
expected, said Chief Executive Oliver Baete, who took the helm in
May.
"I'm very positive as regards Pimco's future and the development
of its business. We'll see continuing and further improvements in
the coming quarters," said Mr. Baete, who called Mr. Gross's
departure "an incredible shock" that must be digested.
Compared with other companies that took several years to
overcome similar situations, Pimco is doing quite well after only
several months, Mr. Baete said. The group has invested in
stabilizing the management team and keeping customers and has
appointed well-known names like former U.S. Federal Reserve
Chairman Ben Bernanke, who is now a senior investment adviser at
Pimco, he said.
Mr. Baete also said the cost-income ratio in the business will
improve in the coming quarters. In the second quarter, it rose
further to 67.4% from 57.9%, and against 64.7% in the first
quarter.
Mr. Baete also noted that third-party net outflows at Pimco
eased in the course of this year and that net inflows at Allianz
Global Investors reached a new high.
According to the group figures, Pimco and AGI combined had
third-party net outflows of EUR22.5 billion in the second quarter,
still marking an increase from EUR17.2 billion in the same quarter
a year ago. But compared with the first quarter, outflows eased by
one-third. The improvement was mainly because of Pimco, whose net
asset outflows of EUR29.3 billion were less than half the EUR68.3
billion in outflows seen in the first quarter. Compared with the
year-earlier quarter, Pimco's net asset outflows were still higher,
though.
The group's total assets under management--the bulk of which are
third-party assets but which also includes Allianz assets--were
EUR1.81 trillion at the end of June, a 6.3% decrease since March.
But they were little changed from the end of 2014 and from the
second quarter of 2014.
Third-party assets under management of EUR1.32 trillion fell 6%
since the end of March, because of a combination of net outflows,
declines in market value and currency-translation losses. They were
down 3.6% from the same quarter a year ago.
In the group's life- and health-insurance business, operating
profit fell 13% to EUR853 million, mainly because of a narrower
investment margin in Germany and reserve strengthening in South
Korea.
Quarterly net profit rose 15% to EUR2.02 billion from EUR1.76
billion in the same quarter a year ago, beating the forecast of
EUR1.83 billion.
Quarterly operating profit received a EUR200 million net boost
from the sale of the retail business of its U.S. insurer Fireman's
Fund to ACE Ltd. (ACE). The sale was closed in April.
Write to Ulrike Dauer at ulrike.dauer@wsj.com
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