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Outlook

In view of the available market opportunities, our good positioning and the development of business to date, we expect to achieve our goals for the full 2013 financial year. It remains our expectation that total gross premium will grow by around 5%.

In non-life reinsurance we expect the competitive environment to continue, in some areas with corresponding implications for conditions in reinsurance treaties. Nevertheless, the market should still be able to respond to losses with rate increases. With this in mind, we shall stand by our strategy of systematic cycle management combined with rigorous underwriting discipline.

At the same time, though, we see further attractive growth opportunities in non-life reinsurance. Increasing concentrations of values in urban conurbations as well as the adoption of risk-based solvency systems in Europe and Asia are ensuring stable demand for high-quality reinsurance protection. We therefore expect to see risk-appropriate conditions in the upcoming rounds of treaty renewals. The early indications that we took away from the industry gatherings in Monte Carlo, Baden-Baden and the United States, where initial discussions took place regarding the treaty renewals as at 1 January 2014, were correspondingly positive. In Germany, for example, we anticipate rising prices and improved conditions on the back of the accumulation of natural catastrophe events.

For the full 2013 financial year we are looking to grow our gross premium in non-life reinsurance by around 3% at constant exchange rates; the EBIT margin should come in comfortably higher than 10%.

Future developments in international life and health reinsurance will be crucially shaped by progress with the implementation of Solvency II, movements in interest rates around the world and economic growth. Assuming that there is no dramatic shift in the prevailing economic and political circumstances, we expect the remaining three months of the year to offer further promising business potential worldwide. Growing risk awareness and an expanding middle class in emerging markets are fostering rising demand for (re)insurance protection, especially for retirement provision and products designed to protect income and safeguard the financial future of the family. In mature insurance markets such as the United States, Scandinavia, United Kingdom, France and Germany, supervisory and regulatory requirements in the financial sector are driving constant changes. We support our primary insurance clients with tailored reinsurance solutions designed, inter alia, to afford solvency relief, optimise liquidity management and facilitate the more efficient leverage of their capital structure. We have the necessary expertise, know-how and resources, and with our international network we are able to respond to the individual needs of our clients anywhere in the world at any time.

The growth in organic gross premium anticipated for the remainder of 2013 remains unchanged in the range of 5% to 7% after adjustment for exchange rate effects. In terms of the EBIT margin, we are looking to a target of at least 2% in the fourth quarter for the reporting categories of Financial Solutions and Longevity, while an EBIT margin in the order of 6% should be attainable for Mortality and Morbidity business.

The expected positive cash flow that we generate from the technical account and our investments should – subject to stable exchange rates and yield levels – lead to further growth in our asset portfolio. In the area of fixed-income securities we continue to stress the high quality and diversification of our portfolio. With a view to stabilising the return in a stubbornly low interest rate environment we shall maintain the proportion of corporate bonds and further slightly expand our real estate portfolio. We are targeting a return on investment of 3.4% for 2013.

In view of the good overall business conditions in non-life and life / health reinsurance and bearing in mind our strategic orientation, we continue to anticipate Group net income in the order of EUR 800 million for 2013. This is subject to the premise that major losses do not significantly exceed the expected level of EUR 625 million for the full year and also assumes that there are no drastic downturns on capital markets. For 2013, as in recent years, we are again aiming for a dividend payout in the range of 35% to 40% of IFRS Group net income.

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