(Bloomberg) -- Zurich Insurance Group AG set new targets for profitability and profit growth for the next three years, after a better-than-expected market environment put it on track to exceed its existing guidance a year ahead of plan.
The insurer pledged to increase core earnings per share at a compound annual growth rate of more than 9% through 2027, and reach a core return on equity of more than 23%. It also aims for cumulative cash remittances of more than $19 billion, compared with $13.5 billion in the previous plan.
The targets “appear to be marginally higher than expected,” Philip Kett and James Pearse, analysts at Jefferies Financial Group Inc., said in a note. Citigroup Inc. analyst James Shuck called the new plan “impressive.”
Chief Executive Officer Mario Greco has used bolt-on acquisitions to help bolster growth and compete with rivals such as Allianz SE and Axa SA. The new targets are the “most ambitious” in the insurer’s history, he said in a statement Thursday.
Read also: Cevian’s Baloise Move Triggers Europe Insurers to Study Deal
Shares of the insurer rose 1.8% at 9:06 a.m. in Zurich, bringing gains this year to 23%.
Zurich this year agreed to buy American International Group’s global travel insurance business, as well as a majority stake in India’s Kotak General Insurance Company Ltd., making it the first foreign insurer to enter India after regulations were relaxed three years ago.
(Updates with analysts’ comments in third paragraph)
©2024 Bloomberg L.P.