Price hikes support Zurich top line, but units remain to be offloaded

Price rises across the board of around 6% helped insurer Zurich to report better first half results, but the group is yet to complete on a number of deals to offload units in Chile, Germany and Spain. The insurer stated: "The group achieved price increases of about 6% in the first half of the year, supported by a commercial insurance rate change of 7% and a recovery in the retail business." So-called business operating profit (BOP) came in at $3.7bn for the period, with return on equity (defined as "BOPAT ROE") was 22.9%. Earnings per share grew 8% in dollar terms, with net income ...