ALM. Brand A/S Q4 2018 Earnings Call Transcript

The following is excerpted from the question-and-answer section of the transcript.

Question: Asbj°rn Nicholas M°rk - Danske Bank Markets Equity Research - Analyst : A couple of questions from my side. If we start on your P&C on the top line. You're still getting 2% to 3% growth. If you look at your Q4, it's actually down slightly versus Q2, and year-over-year up just 1.4%. So basically what is it that makes you confident that you'll still be able to grow 2% to 3% in 2019? And if I may, on top of that, you mentioned in the report that you're growing within the car insurance, one thing, but also within worker's compensation. How do you see the price environment in worker's compensation now? REFINITIV STREETEVENTS | www.refinitiv.com | Contact Us consent of Refinitiv. 'Refinitiv' and the Refinitiv logo are registered trademarks of Refinitiv and its affiliated companies. FEBRUARY 05, 2019 / 9:00AM, ALMB.CO - Q4 2018 ALM. Brand A/S Earnings Call

Question: Asbj°rn Nicholas M°rk - Danske Bank Markets Equity Research - Analyst : And what about the health and accidents? Because you mentioned 3 times in your report that it has been seeing quite a lot of claims on -- smaller claims, but still quite a lot of them, especially during the second half of '18. Are you seeing any or are you doing any repricing there? Do you see any trends that pricing is trending upwards in the market?

Question: Asbj°rn Nicholas M°rk - Danske Bank Markets Equity Research - Analyst : Okay. Then if I just may add a question on P&C guidance for [2019], DKK 475 million. If I stand correct, that included the impact from the VA assessment of DKK 25 million of guidance, but you haven't included any impact from Qudos. Is it correctly understood?

Question: Asbj°rn Nicholas M°rk - Danske Bank Markets Equity Research - Analyst : So when you reiterate the guidance of DKK 475 million in spite of the VA impact being DKK 10 million, DKK 15 million higher, I guess that means that your January so far -- or that January has been quite benign versus your expectations?

Question: Asbj°rn Nicholas M°rk - Danske Bank Markets Equity Research - Analyst : Of course. No problem. Hope it's a bit better. My question was, when you reiterate your DKK 475 million guidance for Non-life, but VA impact is now seen at DKK 20 million to DKK 25 million versus, I guess, somewhere around [DKK 10 million less], if I understood you, previously. So underlying, I guess your January has been quite good since you reiterated the guidance, so should we read anything or can we read anything into that?

Question: Asbj°rn Nicholas M°rk - Danske Bank Markets Equity Research - Analyst : All right. Very clear. And then just one question really on Life. So if I understand your presentation correctly, you said that the cost rate in fact improved DKK 8 million due to premium growth, and you're guiding for 7%, 8% premium growth again, 2019, but you still maintain DKK 8 million of pretax profits. Is that a bit conservative or do you see something that -- why is it that we should basically kind of expect your Life Insurance profits to benefit going forward?

Question: Asbj°rn Nicholas M°rk - Danske Bank Markets Equity Research - Analyst : But with bonus rate of [18%] and [1%] impact from the VA, does that mean, I guess -- and what you said, basically, in the presentation was that it doesn't really impact your business strategy in Life and the investment strategy, so to speak, but does it impact your capital requirements in Life? REFINITIV STREETEVENTS | www.refinitiv.com | Contact Us consent of Refinitiv. 'Refinitiv' and the Refinitiv logo are registered trademarks of Refinitiv and its affiliated companies. FEBRUARY 05, 2019 / 9:00AM, ALMB.CO - Q4 2018 ALM. Brand A/S Earnings Call

Question: Asbj°rn Nicholas M°rk - Danske Bank Markets Equity Research - Analyst : Okay. And then final question on your bank. Now a deficit of DKK 17 million before loan losses, it seems -- when I look at the numbers, it still seems like your preprovision operations are still quite far from being profitable. And then, of course, I guess at some stage, loss reversals will end. So my question is really, how confident are you with the DKK 80 million to DKK 100 million for 2019, the intangible impairments there? And do you assume any sort of a stabilization to margins or any recovery in the market activity for 2019 versus '18? Or how should we look at that?