Gross premium revenue was down 5% to EUR 963.3m, while the combined ratio, a measure of profitability in the insurance industry, was down 0.5 percentage points (signalling improvement) to 89.6%.

The core company saw premium revenue decline by 7% to EUR 647.6m, but net profit totalled EUR 50.4m, making for a combined ratio of 81.4%, a 1.6 p.p. improvement on last year.

Triglav, the biggest insurance group in the Adriatic region, said the results were achieved despite the difficult situation on the market.

The group had to impair investments by EUR 43.7m, partially due to Greek bonds and the writeoff of Greek debt.

CEO Tomaž Rakovec was quoted as saying that the focus on the core business and prudent risk management had allowed the group to increase profit since 2009.

"The preliminary results show that we are successfully adapting to difficult conditions for business and optimising operations," he said.

Triglav will disclose consolidated results on 6 March.