(Bloomberg) -- Allianz SE, the German insurer that owns Pacific Investment Management Co., slightly lifted its guidance for full-year profit after third-quarter profit rose, driven by its property-casualty insurance business.
Group operating profit increased 14% to €3.94 billion ($4.18 billion), the Munich-based company said on Wednesday, led by a 36% gain in the non-life business. It now expects full-year profit to be in the upper half of its forecast range of €13.8 billion to €15.8 billion.
Pimco attracted €24.8 billion from outside clients in the quarter, while its sister unit Allianz Global Investors recorded €5 billion in third-party outflows.
Allianz Chief Executive Officer Oliver Baete is expected to lay out new targets for the company at a capital markets day in December, after increasing the dividend payout ratio and stepping up dealmaking. Asset management is one area where Allianz may consider strategic changes. Competitor Axa SA earlier this year announced the sale of its asset management unit to BNP Paribas SA.
Shares of Allianz rose 1.3% at 9:49 a.m. in Munich, bringing gains this year to 18%.
Unlike Pimco, which is one of the world’s premier bond managers, AGI has long been seen as subscale with just a few hundred billion euros overseen for outside clients. Bloomberg reported previously that Allianz is looking into options for AGI, which could include tie-ups and partnerships.
“Allianz’s management has always been clear that they are interested in scale wherever they operated,” Deutsche Bank analysts wrote in a note last month. At Berenberg, analyst Michael Huttner said his base case scenario is that Allianz may consider selling a 51% AGI stake to a long-term partner.
In the third quarter, AGI’s third-party outflows were mainly driven by two large mandates in the fixed income business and also by the equity business, Allianz said in a presentation. The unit saw smaller inflows in multi-asset and alternative strategies.
The performance compares with inflows of €18.3 billion at DWS Group, the asset management arm of Deutsche Bank AG.
Allianz’s non-life insurance business benefited from lower natural catastrophes losses compared to the prior-year quarter, even though they remained at an elevated level. The life and health business saw operating profit increase by 5.2%, with growth “widely spread across our businesses”, Allianz said.
(Updates with share reaction in fifth paragraph.)
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