Zavarovalnica Triglav, Slovenia's largest insurance group, posted a profit for last year but its business was hit hard by storms that pummelled the country in spring and summer, and by changes to supplementary health insurance.

The company reported a net profit of €16 million on total turnover of €1.78 billion, a 12% increase on the year before, show unaudited preliminary figures released on 6 March.

The profit comparison with the year before is tricky, however. The company says it compares to a €7 million net loss for 2022, but its audited annual report for 2022 shows it had posted a net profit of €110 million that year.

The company says it transitioned to new accounting standards, IFRS 9 and IFRS 17, in 2023, and some figures for 2022 had to be recalculated. The full impact of the transition to the new accounting standards will be explained in detail once the annual report is out.

Gross premium revenue amounted to €1.65 billion, a 12% increase on the year before, while other revenue rose by a tenth to €126.5 million.

Claims incurred rose by a third to €1.02 billion, largely due to €212 million in damages due to storms that hit Slovenia in the spring and floods that caused massive damage in August.

However, the company says reinsurance prevented a significant impact on the bottom line.

Instead, the biggest loss maker was health insurance, a segment in which Triglav lost €27 million.

Triglav was one of the three companies that offered supplementary health insurance, which was abolished by law at the end of last year, but not before all three insurers incurred losses after premiums were frozen in the run-up to the termination of the scheme.

The poor performance of the core insurance business was offset by investments and asset management. The net investment result amounted to €22 million, whereas asset management and other non-insurance operations contributed over €8 million to the bottom line.

"Last year was a very challenging year. Natural disasters have resulted in an increased need for support to our policyholders and have led to record-high claims for the group," chairman Andrej Slapar was quoted as saying.

"In addition to the aforementioned factors and claims inflation, the government regulation of the price of supplementary health insurance in Slovenia had a significant impact on our results."

In 2024, the group anticipates that business conditions will return to normal and plans a total revenue of around €1.6 billion, and profit before tax of €100-120 million.