France, Maghreb and Arab countries
Life and health reinsurance business in these regions - also including French-speaking Canada - is lead-managed by our life branch in Paris. The premium volume in the year under review climbed by 17% to EUR 372.0 million, and profitability was again very pleasing.
Key growth drivers - as in the previous year - were bancassurance business, in which we successfully accompanied moves made by several life subsidiaries of major French banks into foreign markets, as well as the Near East. In this region we were able to use structural changes at some competitors as opportunities to initiate new business contacts within traditional reinsurance.
At our composite subsidiary Hannover ReTakaful based in Manama, Bahrain, which focuses on the reinsurance of Islamic insurance organisations, we put in place a complete infrastructure for the life sector (so-called family takaful) and acquired a number of new customers from Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and other countries in the region.