NOC affected by the market decline in savings
CNP Assurances announced Friday that the market decline of savings in Europe had continued to weigh on its sales in the first quarter and said the change of government in France maintained the uncertainty the life insurance industry.
The turnover of the insurer fell 12.9% during the first three months of the year, to 7.028 billion euros.
The action CNP Assurances signed Friday in early trading shrinkage greater than that of the sector to 9:50, the title lost 2.27% to 9.7330 euros, while the European index limited its losses to 1.35%.
"There is a wait due to the structure of taxation and savings in general," he said during a conference call the Director Financial Group, Antoine Lissowski.
He explained that it was difficult to assess the impact that doubling the ceiling of the Livret planned by President-elect Francois Hollande on appetite of French for life insurance.
It is currently suffering from competition from banks, seeking to attract customers and their deposits with savings accounts attractive.
The persistence of low interest rates also makes traditional life insurance products unattractive in terms of yield.
Despite a set back, CNP Assurances has managed to generate a first quarter net profit up 1.8% to 275 million euros through improved financial markets.
The group took advantage of the upturn to continue its program of disposals of risky assets, particularly in Italy and Spain.
"The improved market conditions in the first quarter allowed us to record an increase in our earnings while actively pursuing our strategy of selling risky assets," said the director gen ; eral, Gilles Benoist, in a statement.
Antoine Lissowski said his group no longer had to date of Greek sovereign debt and had reduced its exposure to equity markets.
The CFO did not want to comment on the planned replacement of Gilles Benoist.
NOC has postponed its annual meeting from 7 to 29 June, after the parliamentary elections.
At that time a new boss of the Caisse des Depots (CDC), the majority shareholder of NOC, should have been appointed.
Director General of the CDC until early March, Augustin de Romanet applied for membership to the estate of Gilles Benoist as Director General of NPC.