Enlarge image
Allianz subsidiary Global Investors: The provision burdens the surplus with around 1.6 billion euros
Photo: TILMAN BLASSHOFER / REUTERS
The Allianz insurance group is setting aside a further 1.9 billion euros because of the ongoing legal dispute with major investors in the USA.
The Dax group surprisingly announced that the reason for this was further comparisons for the compensation of investors and ongoing talks with the US authorities.
A charge of around 3.7 billion euros has already been booked in the annual financial statements for 2021, and the new provision is now intended to cover the rest of the risk.
This includes compensation payments to investors and possible payments as part of the official procedures, it said.
Surprisingly well earned in day-to-day business
The reason for the anger is the losses that professional investors suffered with the Structured Alpha funds from Allianz Global Investors (AGI) at the beginning of the corona crisis in 2020.
Several investors, including pension funds, have therefore sued the Allianz fund subsidiary for damages.
The allegations boil down to the fact that the managers of these hedge funds did not comply with their own guidelines and did not react appropriately to market developments.
The Allianz leadership has so far not wanted to comment on their view of things before the US authorities have presented their investigation results.
As early as February, however, the group announced that it had reached settlement agreements with the majority of the plaintiffs.
Allianz once again made it clear that its shareholders do not have to fear a cut in dividends despite the drop in profits.
When calculating the distribution, the special burden will be deducted, it said.
For the first quarter, Allianz is expecting a drop in profits to around 600 million euros due to the burden of billions.
In the first quarter of the previous year, the group had earned more than 2.5 billion euros.
The provision burdens the surplus with around 1.6 billion euros.
In day-to-day business, on the other hand, the group earned surprisingly well.
According to the information, operating profit fell from 3.3 billion to 3.2 billion euros year-on-year, but was higher than average analysts expected.
Allianz once again made it clear that it will factor out the burden of the US litigation when calculating the dividend for shareholders.
mik/dpa-AFX