Insurer Ageas expects European market to outperform Asia business in 2025

By Mateusz Rabiega and Jakob Van Calster

(Reuters) -Ageas said on Thursday that it expects strong annual growth in its European markets in 2025 as it reported full-year net operating profit at the top end of its forecast, on solid performance in its non-life and life insurance segments.

Shares of the company edged up slightly to close at 0.8%, reaching a nearly four-year high.

"I think that we have seen that the growth in Europe was a lot stronger than in Asia in 2024. And I think that is going to stay like this in 2025," Ageas CEO Hans De Cuyper told Reuters.

Ageas' total inflows rose 10% to 18.49 billion euros in 2024, including 8.60 billion euros from its biggest market, Asia, of which China contributed the most.

However, the company expects business in its Asia market to slow down as it faces headwinds from a low-interest-rate environment affecting Beijing's accounting standards, he said.

"In the local accounting standards, they (China) are now absorbing the low-interest rate environment... this is all about booking taxes."

"Before tax, we actually have a very solid technical performance on the results in China," De Cuyper said in an interview.

Ageas beat market expectations by reporting annual net operating profit of 1.24 billion euros ($1.30 billion).

The company saw its European business inflows increase by 24% in 2024, while growth in its Asian segment slowed to 7% following years of double-digit expansion.

"We grew inflows considerably, increased the profitability of our business... This strong performance enables us to announce a total gross cash dividend of 3.50 euros for 2024," De Cuyper said.

The company also said it expects profit of 1.3 billion euros this year, excluding a potential impact from adverse weather and volatile financial markets.

European rivals NN Group and ASR Nederland also reported strong 2024 results on recovery and new income sources.

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(Reporting by Mateusz Rabiega and Jakob Van Calster in Gdansk; Editing by Janane Venkatraman and Pooja Desai)