Zurich Insurance beats forecasts after a turbolent year

Zurich Insurance on Thursday posted a 74% jump in full-year net earnings as its core general insurance business rebounded under new chief executive Mario Greco.
The Swiss insurer increased net profit for the year to $3.211 billion, just short of the average estimate of $3.315 billion in a Reuters poll of 11 analysts. Fourth quarter profit climbed to $685 million, after a $424 million loss in the same quarter the previous year.
“It was a turbulent year,” Greco said in an interview with Bloomberg Television. “Markets were tough. We made lots of changes but results came out very strong. They give us optimism for ’17 and the next years.”

The insurer proposed an unchanged dividend of 17 Swiss francs for the year.

"We are on track to create a simpler structure, underpinned by smart investment and greater customer focus, that will ensure we are equipped to realize the Group's full potential," Chief Executive Mario Greco said in a statement. "These results show what we can accomplish and are an excellent start to achieving our 2019 financial targets."

Greco added he was “cautiously optimistic” about financial markets this year. “We expect markets to support us in 2017 better than they have done in the past year,” he said in the interview with media. “We expect rates to slow move up.”

In November, Greco upped the company's cost-cutting goals to generate net savings of $1.5 billion by 2019 compared to a 2015 basis while trimming the group's main profitability goal to a more achievable level.