Generali posts 9 per cent profit rise as it starts talks with Pactual

MILAN: Generali followed up an announcement late on Wednesday that it is has begun talks to sell its Swiss business BSI to a Brazilian investment bank by posting a 9.4 per cent rise in first-quarter net profit on Thursday.

Italy's biggest insurer by market value said net profit had risen to 660 million euros, helped by a rebound in life insurance, a strong performance in the non-life business and improved financial markets, adding that it is on track to meet a 2015 sales target of 4 billion euros ($5.48 billion).

The company, Europe's No.3 insurance group, said its closely watched Solvency I ratio stood at approximately 160 per cent at the end of April, close to the level Generali has set as a target in a three-year business plan unveiled last year.

First-quarter operating results were broadly flat at 1.3 billion euros and premiums rose 1.5 per cent to more than 18 billion euros.

"We believe we will be able to meet our disposal and Solvency targets ahead of schedule," Generali Chief Financial Officer Alberto Minali said in a statement.

The company is pushing ahead with a plan to sell non-core assets to bolster its capital base and focus on its traditional insurance business.

BSI, a private bank based in Switzerland's Italian-speaking Ticino area, has been on the block for a number of years but had failed to draw sufficiently attractive bids.

Latin America's largest independent investment bank Grupo BTG Pactual SA, controlled by billionaire financier Andre Esteves, is seeking the purchase of a wealth management company to add more fee-related activities to the fast-growing banking empire Esteves has built since 2009.