Allianz SE reported a record nine-month operating profit of €14.1 billion, up 7.8% year on year, as the group released its third-quarter results. The number tells only part of the story.
Inside the property-casualty segment, the third quarter was notably harder. Natural catastrophe costs rose from 0.3 percentage points of the loss ratio in Q3 2025 to 5.1 percentage points in Q3 2026. The combined ratio deteriorated from 91.9% to 93.8%, P&C operating profit fell 7.9% to €2.2 billion, and a segment tracking ahead of full-year targets took a sharp hit in a single quarter.
The nine-month record was largely preserved by Asset Management. PIMCO and Allianz Global Investors delivered a 35.1% jump in quarterly operating profit to €1.1 billion, driven by higher assets under management and performance fees. P&C contributed to the full-year picture, but it did not carry Q3.
Allianz Commercial distributes through broker networks in Australia and New Zealand for large corporate, construction, marine, financial lines, cyber, and specialty risks. The Q3 earnings release shows commercial internal growth at 3%, with management characterising the posture as “carefully managing the market environment.” Retail grew at 5%.
Over nine months, the commercial book performed within expectations. The nine-month P&C combined ratio was 92.2%, inside Allianz’s full-year outlook range of 92-93%. A carrier holding commercial growth at 3% in that environment is not being cautious about its capabilities. It is being selective about which risks it writes at current terms.
The scale of Allianz’s Q3 cat shift has regional resonance. Global insured catastrophe losses through September reached approximately US$92 billion, 29% below the 10-year average according to Gallagher Re, the lowest nine-month total since 2019. Yet Allianz still saw its own Q3 cat load jump 17-fold, driven largely by severe convective storm activity in Europe, where the storms generated at least US$9 billion in insured losses through the period, according to Gallagher Re’s Q3 2026 Natural Catastrophe and Climate Report.
Australia and New Zealand have their own developing cat pressures. In Australia, the Insurance Council of Australia recorded AU$3.98 billion in insured losses from 147,552 claims across seven declared events in the 2025-26 financial year. The Bureau of Meteorology’s spring 2026 outlook flags above-average bushfire risk in several regions as El Niño conditions develop. The coming summer season will test whether the globally benign Q3 picture holds in this part of the world.
Beyond the results, Allianz Partners received Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) clearance to proceed with its acquisition of a large portion of nib Group’s Australian and New Zealand travel insurance portfolio. The deal includes the Travel Insurance Direct brand and a 20-year white-label distribution agreement with nib, giving Allianz Partners a substantially broader footprint across digital and intermediary-led travel distribution in both markets.
Allianz raised the upper end of its full-year 2026 operating profit target to around €18.6 billion. The Solvency II ratio stands at 219%, and a €2.5 billion share buyback was fully executed by September. The full-year trajectory remains intact. The Q3 P&C squeeze notwithstanding.
