Allianz SE (ALV)’s reinsurance unit is selling less hurricane and earthquake coverage to third parties as it focuses on commercial property and casualty and agricultural policies. “Allianz Re plans to write fewer peak risks in its open market business,” Clemens von Weichs, chief executive officer of the unit of Europe’s biggest insurer, said in an interview in Monte Carlo. “We want to diversify into other lines of business.” Allianz Re’s annual sales to third parties will remain at about ¤600 million ($822 million), said Von Weichs, who was in Monaco as reinsurers begin talks this week over 2012 renewals. Total gross written premiums for the unit last year were ¤4.39 billion.
Natural disasters, including the earthquake and tsunami in Japan and the temblor in New Zealand, caused record first-half insured losses of $70 billion, eroding reinsurers’ capital. Should reinsurers sell less catastrophe cover, natural disasters may cause greater economic damage, according to Gerry Brownlee, New Zealand’s Earthquake Recovery minister. “If reinsurers don’t sell coverage, the funding for losses will come out of our economy,” said Brownlee, who was in Monte Carlo to convince reinsurers not to pull out of the country.