Business growth
Currently, MAPFRE is the largest Spanish insurer in the world, the largest multinational insurance company in Latin America and is among the 10 largest European groups by premium volume.
![[Img # 53339]](https://empresaexterior.com/upload/images/07_2023/9743_fernando-mata_cr.jpg)
Diversification, technical rigor and leadership position are some of the strengths of MAPFRE. This is how he highlighted it Fernando Mata, director and Chief Financial Officer of MAPFRE, at a meeting with retail investors organized by Rent 4, entity with which we have an insurance agreement.
During the session, emphasis was placed on the first aspect, that is, on the advantage of geographical, business and balance sheet diversification. Mata stressed, in fact, that the “current geographic footprint is what we want.” The Group is present on all five continents. Currently, MAPFRE is the largest Spanish insurer in the world, the largest multinational insurance company Latin America and is among the 10 largest European groups by premium volume. “We are comfortable with the risk profile we have and the countries we are operating in,” he said. And he added that “we do not see new restructurings in the future” in reference to the latest processes undertaken in units such as assistance or the closures in some states of USA, Philippines and Indonesia. What's more, the manager assured that rather than withdrawing, "if there is any business that complements us, mainly in the core countries, we will analyze it."
Despite this difficult context, with inflation at historic highs, Mata, who was accompanied by Felipe Navarro, director of Capital Markets and treasury, highlighted the growth that is occurring in the reinsurance business and also the Brazilian market, which has become the one that contributes the most to the Group in relative terms. “Brazil It is the jewel in the crown, since it grows above inflation and there is an increase in the average premium of more than 20%,” explained the Chief Financial Officer.
Precisely, the handicap for the sector is how to transfer this price increase to premiums, mainly in cars. In this sense, Mata explained that MAPFRE has the technological capacity to individualize prices and adapt the rate to the risk profile of each client. “The increases occur in an orderly manner and what we transfer is our increase in costs, not inflation.”
Mata also referred to the financial business, where central banks have had to apply the highest pace of interest rate increases in history to contain inflation. This has led insurers to change the way they manage the portfolio. At MAPFRE small adjustments have been made and “the most important defense has been the fixed income linked to inflation at the interest rates of the central banks, both in Europe as in Latin America”. Furthermore, “we have made some progress in alternatives, but with great caution.” In this regard, Navarro added that the financial sector always tends to complain, both when rates are low and when they are high. However, remember that “insurance companies live better in positive interest rate environments for two reasons: on the one hand, because they allow us to market traditional savings products that add value to the client and, on the other, because investments give us returns. that help improve the Group's profitability."
In fact, in the first quarter of the year, the insurance sector has filled a gap left by the banks, which have decided not to increase the profitability of deposits. This has led to unusual growth in savings savings, with figures of more than 1.000 million in the quarter in the case of MAPFRE. However, Mata indicates that this is something temporary and that we will return to more normal figures of between 100 and 150 million per month.
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