Munich Re ups profit forecast after pleasing Q2

Munich Re, the world's largest reinsurer, said Tuesday it was raising its profit forecast for 2012 after a better-than-expected second quarter. "We are well on track to slightly surpass the originally envisaged profit for the year of around 2.5 billion euros ($3.1 billion)," chief executive Nikolaus von Bomhard said in a statement. "We are optimistic for 2012, despite the difficult business environment." Full-year gross premium income was projected to reach "a range between 50-52 billion euros," compared with 50 billion euros in 2011, the group said. In the second quarter alone, Munich Re booked a 9.8-percent rise in net profit to 808 million euros on a 5.5-percent rise in gross premiums to 12.632 billion euros. That took meant first-half profit amounted to 1.594 billion euros on gross premiums of 25.897 billion euros. "With a profit of 1.6 billion euros for the first half-year, we have achieved well over half of our target of around 2.5 billion euros," von Bomhard said.