Dialogue with the capital market

The Executive Board and representatives of the Investor Relations department cultivated the dialogue with institutional investors continuously throughout the financial year just ended. The focus of their efforts remained on the financial centres of Europe and North America. While the number of capital market conferences attended was unchanged year-on-year at 17, the interest shown by institutional investors in on-site visits in the context of roadshows was sharply lower. While the latter were down by almost half compared to the previous year, the company nevertheless noted a substantial rise in demand among investors for visits to its Hannover headquarters as well as individually tailored conference calls. As the year got underway a particularly pivotal topic of discussion was the impact of the US tax reform on Hannover Re. As the months passed the negative earnings situation in US mortality business came to play a prominent role, as did the countermeasures taken by the company and their implications for the full-year profit guidance.

The developments in US mortality business were also addressed at Hannover Re’s 21st Investors’ Day, which was held on 18 October 2018 in London and carried as a parallel webcast on the company’s website. The Executive Board additionally took the opportunity to provide insights into new business prospects in life reinsurance outside the US as well as an update on the company’s capitalisation and risk profile. Discussions about the relevance of the cash flow in property and casualty reinsurance similarly featured on the agenda, as did the likely effects of implementation of the IFRS 17 accounting standard on financial reporting by (re)insurance undertakings.