Hannover Re reported that despite a highly competitive market environment, its total renewal premiums for traditional property and casualty reinsurance increased by 3.3% to €10.535 billion as of January 1, 2026.
The reinsurer noted that its growth was driven by its strong market position and long-term, partnership-driven client relationships.
According to Hannover Re, the contract with a premium of €10.196 million was renewed on January 1. This is equivalent to 61% of traditional property and casualty reinsurance business (excluding temporary reinsurance, ILS business and structural reinsurance).
The company renewed contracts worth €9.369 million, while canceling contracts worth €827 million.
Hannover Re explained: “Together with €1.165 million from new and restructured treaties and changes in prices and treaty shares, total renewal premiums increased by 3.3% to €10.535 million.”
The reinsurer added that risk-adjusted average prices fell 3.2% as the quality of renewal business remained generally good.
Sven Althoff, member of the Executive Board for Property and Casualty Reinsurance at Hannover Re, commented: “While treaty terms and conditions have remained broadly stable, price declines have been more pronounced than expected, particularly in highly competitive lines and medium-loss contracts.
“Nonetheless, price levels remain above multi-year averages and remain commensurate with risk. We therefore continue to profitably expand our portfolio by strengthening existing client relationships and developing new ones.
“Proportional plans have benefited from growth in our client base. We have also further enhanced our own retrocession protection.”
Looking at premium transaction volume by region, Hannover Re reported that the Americas region grew 6.5% as of January 1, with more than half of its business set to be renewed for the remainder of 2026.
“In the U.S., real estate business volumes are stable. Despite falling prices, they remain at adequate risk levels. U.S. casualty insurance offers selective growth opportunities against a backdrop of generally stable prices. In Canada, stabilization from renewals reflects a continued strong competitive position,” Hannover Re added.
Meanwhile, premium volume in Europe, the Middle East and Africa was essentially flat as of January 1 compared with the same period last year, up 0.4%.
The company said it has maintained good levels of profitability despite fierce competition, particularly in its natural disaster insurance business.
Hannover Re said: “The region offers a wide range of growth opportunities, although these are partially constrained by high retention rates among individual customers, especially in Germany. Renewals are mainly driven by price and the treaty structure remains largely unchanged.”
Meanwhile, premium volume in the Asia-Pacific region edged up 1.9%. The reinsurer noted early signs of an expansion of terms and conditions in a highly competitive and challenging market landscape.
Hannover Re said that in some cases business contracted at unexpectedly low prices or on poorer terms and conditions was deliberately not renewed.
Nonetheless, the reinsurer said it was able to keep its profitable portfolio generally stable. Demand for natural disaster insurance is growing particularly strongly in markets hit hard by losses in parts of Southeast Asia.
Hannover Re’s specialty lines include temporary reinsurance, credit, guarantee and political risk, aviation and maritime, agricultural risk and cyber and digital business. Despite the fierce competition in the market environment, as of January 1, premium volume still increased by 5.8%.
Hannover Re said its credit, guarantee and political risk businesses achieved double-digit growth amid an attractive market backdrop, while aviation and ocean business volumes declined due to strict underwriting, with aviation rates rising disproportionately but ocean shipping pricing and terms facing greater than expected pressure.
At the same time, agricultural lines continue to expand in core markets such as Brazil and the United States, with stable freight rates and quality, maintaining market share, and generating new businesses in the networking and digital fields.
On the temporary reinsurance front, although Hannover Re renewed much of its portfolio at risk-adequate rates and added new treaties, oversupply and higher customer retention rates led to lower prices, particularly in the real estate sector.
In the natural catastrophe business, while pricing remains generally adequate, ample capacity has led to risk-adjusted rate reductions of 10% to 20%, while structural reinsurance demand remains strong despite competition, although reduced ceding under larger contracts is expected to cut into premium volumes.
Taking all this into consideration, Clemens Jungsthöfel, CEO of Hannover Re, commented: “We achieved profitable growth in our renewals at the beginning of the year in a highly competitive market environment.
“Our strong market position, long-term, partner-focused customer relationships and cost advantages are all key factors. As a result of our broad positioning, we were able to partially offset significant price reductions in certain product lines across our portfolio.
“We were able to increase our market share in profitable areas of the business. The quality of our written portfolio remains generally at a good level.”
In addition to the contract renewal news, Hannover Re also released preliminary key data for the 2025 financial year.
The reinsurer said reinsurance revenue would reach 26.8 billion euros in 2025, up from 26.4 billion euros in 2024, according to unaudited financial data.
Operating profit (EBIT) for the period was said to be €3.5 billion. Property and casualty reinsurance contributed €2.6 billion to operating results, while life and health reinsurance contributed €900 million.
Hannover Re continued: “The promising underwriting performance of Property & Casualty Reinsurance made it possible to further improve the resilience of loss reserves in the fourth quarter while realizing the hidden losses in the portfolio.”
Finally, the group’s net profit increased from 2.33 billion euros to 2.64 billion euros, allowing Hannover Re to achieve its fourth-quarter profit target of approximately 2.6 billion euros.
Clemens Jungsthöfel concludes: “With January’s renewal behind us, we are confident about the future following our successful 2025. Our careful planning and strong market position continue to generate additional profitable opportunities for growth, even in the face of increasing competition.”
“As a result of our conservative provisioning in property and casualty reinsurance and aggressive realization of investment losses, we are well positioned for further sustained profitable growth in the coming years.”