The severe storms in Slovenia, Austria and Italy caused insurer Allianz’s profits to collapse in the third quarter. Overall, the consequences of natural disasters cost the DAX group almost 1.3 billion euros, almost four times as much as a year earlier, as he announced in Munich.

The operating profit therefore fell by 15 percent to 3.5 billion euros. Analysts had expected an even steeper decline. In any case, CEO Oliver Bäte sees Allianz still on track to generate an operating profit of between 13.2 and 15.2 billion euros this year as planned.

The bottom line is that shareholders received a surplus of over two billion euros in the third quarter, almost 30 percent less than in the same period last year. At that time, a transfer of assets from the fund subsidiary AGI to a business partner drove up profits.