According to the recently published 2022 annual report from Danish ICMIF member GF Forsikring, the mutual insurer managed to provide profit sharing and also avoid price increases for members. This was despite inflation and, not least said the insurer, large losses on investments.
At the mutual insurer’s annual general meeting in Odense on Saturday 29 April, the AGM approved the annual report for 2022, and the member-owned company said it can now put an end to a challenging year in which the turbulent financial markets resulted in a total negative profit before tax of DKK -380 million. However, the year also saw many positive developments, and the underlying business showed a sound technical result of DKK 144 million for the year.
Mark Palmberg (pictured), CEO, GF Forsikring said: “I am pleased that, in 2022, GF Forsikring was able to support our members at a time when the individual household’s finances have been squeezed due to rising prices. We shared more than DKK 260 million with our members, and we still have no plans for price increases beyond the regular indexation.”
Palmberg continued: “We do not believe that a single year with a negative investment result should hurt our members. Last year, 2022, was a satisfactory year from an insurance technical point of view. Our members’ everyday lives began to resemble the time before the corona pandemic, but the increase in damage costs was not quite as big as expected – and apart from storm Malik at the beginning of the year, we were spared the major weather damage.”
Last year was a historically difficult year for investors, and GF Forsikring, like the rest of the insurance industry, said it felt this. Nevertheless, Mark Palmberg does not believe that the investment strategy should be fundamentally changed.
“Of course, the situation has given us reason to look inwards: Are we doing the right thing? Do we have a good enough investment profile? I think we have, but we continue to follow developments in the financial markets very closely, said Palmberg and continued: “Investment markets go up and down and we are long-term investors. The market movements must therefore be seen in a long-term perspective, and with solid equity and a healthy underlying business, GF remains strong.”
Strengthening GF Forsikring’s long-term market position
Mark Palmberg emphasised that GF Forsikring continues to experience positive growth. “In 2022, premium growth and membership growth continued: gross premiums increased by 8.4 percent, and by the end of the year we were approaching 345,000 members. At the beginning of 2023, we also reached an important milestone when our portfolio reached DKK 3 billion, and last but not least, we have very loyal members, many of whom recommend us to friends and acquaintances. There is therefore fertile ground for continued growth,” he says.
In 2023, GF Forsikring says it will continue its work to strengthen its long-term position as the nationwide member-owned alternative in both the private and business markets. This requires, among other things, an upgrade of the business organisation.
“After we hired Martin Høj as Commercial Director in 2022, we have really focused on our business customers. We will continue this good work in 2023, and we have great ambitions: We have set ourselves the goal that within ten years we will have the same market share in business customers as we have in the private market today – that is, 4-5 percent of the market,” Mark Palmberg concluded.
Outlook for 2023
Overall, GF Forsikring says it expects a positive result after profit sharing and tax in the level of DKK 100 million in 2023, provided that there will be no extraordinarily high expenses for major and weather damage, and that the financial markets do not develop negatively during the year.
As at 31 December, GF Forsikring had equity of DKK 2.5 billion and a solvency coverage of DKK 2.1 billion.
