Good afternoon and welcome to Mapfre's full year's 2024 activity update. This is Felipe Navarro, Deputy General Manager of the Finance Area. We want to welcome those who have joined us in person today, as well as everyone online. It is a pleasure to have Antonio Huertas, Mapfre Re CEO, here with us today. He will make a few opening remarks and will give an overview of the business trends and developments. Later, Fernando Mata, the Group CFO, who will comment on the main financials, and José Luis Jiménez, the Deputy CFO, who will walk us through the balance sheet and capital topics. We will discuss local accounting figures and will give a brief overview of IFRS 17 and 9 figures at the end. Before we begin, just a few reminders.
First, interpretation services are available both here and at home, so feel free to choose the language you prefer, either English or Spanish. At the end of the presentation, we will open up the Q&A. For those of you who are here with us today, you can ask your questions in person, of course, and for those of you online, please use the Ask a Question link on the bottom of your screen. Questions can be made in either language. I will hand the floor over to Antonio Huertas. Please, Antonio.
Good afternoon, everyone. Thank you, Felipe. Before we discuss the key figures which we are presenting under local accounting standards, as Felipe said, I would like to reflect on the past year. I am pleased to present our results for 2024, which have been outstanding, posting the highest level of profit in over a decade. We are quite proud to highlight that we are meeting most financial targets set out in our current strategic plan, and in some cases, even surpassing them. This is proof of our successful execution of the strategic plan. We continue to focus on technical excellence, while financial income remains a strong tailwind. We posted an excellent result of EUR 992 million, the largest ever, and an adjusted ROE of 12%. After accounting for the EUR 90 million impairment of goodwill in Germany recorded in September, net profit was EUR 902 million, up 30%.
Figures under IFRS were also very solid, with a net result of EUR 968 million and a combined ratio of 93%. Growth remains robust, with premiums up 6.6% at constant exchange rates, with more than EUR 28 billion in premiums, our historic record. The growth was really 4.5%, affected by the depreciation of most Latin American currencies. Non-Life technical profitability continues to improve, with a combined ratio at 94.4% and a little over 93% in the fourth quarter. General P&C contributed the most to this reduction on the back of technical improvements, as well as the absence of significant cat events. Motor continues to show strong advances in several markets, significantly improving profitability in North America and Latin. In Iberia, measures are still being implemented, and we expect to see the results in the coming years, in the coming quarter, sorry.
So far, this year, data shows we are heading in the right direction. The market in EMEA is quite challenging, but we are taking all necessary measures to improve our technical results there. The balance sheet is stronger on both asset and liability sides. We continue to increase reserve improvements in many markets, especially in the reinsurance business and Iberia. Our capital base remains strong, with shareholders' equity up over 5% to EUR 8.5 billion, and the solvency ratio at 202% as of September, in line with our reference framework. Thanks to these robust results, we are proposing the highest dividend in the company's history. Mapfre's Board of Directors has proposed a final dividend of EUR 0.095 to be approved by the AGM in March.
This will bring the total dividends paid against 2024 results to EUR 0.16, one-sixth, amounting to over EUR 590 million, fully in cash and with a payout of 55% within our target range. This attractive dividend remuneration, with three consecutive increases, is evidence of our firm commitment to shareholders. Over the last five years, Mapfre has paid out more than EUR 2.2 billion, with an average dividend yield of 7.7% and nearly 7% in 2024. Moving on to the main regions and business units, I do believe that all of them are delivering exceptional results, supported by a focus on technical excellence as well as diversification. Life and General P&C Lines are performing exceptionally well, in addition to reinsurance and global risks. Iberia is benefiting from its highly diversified business mix and improvements in technical management.
Premiums were over EUR 9 billion, and we maintain our leading position in key business line. Profit is up 6% to EUR 367 million. If we exclude the impact from the bank agreement in 2023, net profit would be more than EUR 50 million, higher than last year, up 70%. Latin, including Brazil, remains the largest contributor to business volumes and profit, with close to EUR 10 billion in premiums and EUR 408 million in results, achieved as a consequence of technical improvements as well as a strong contribution from investments. North America is posting a remarkable profit this year, with EUR 98 million and the ROE now at over 8%. Lastly, our reinsurance and global risk businesses delivered a solid result of EUR 325 million with an EUR 81 million improvement, supported by growth and the absence of large cat events, despite the increase in secondary payouts.
These outstanding results are supported by a long-term strategy focused on profitable growth, technical excellence, and diversification, as set out in our 2024 to 2026 strategic plan. Now I will hand the floor to Fernando to walk us through main figures. Fernando, please.
Thank you, Antonio. As mentioned, premiums are up 4.5%, supported by non-life tariff adjustments. There have been headwinds from the Brazilian Real and other Latin American currencies. At constant exchange rates, premiums are up 6.6%, in line with growth expectations. By market, almost all regions continue performing positively, especially Iberia, other Latin, and reinsurance. Sorry. Non-life premiums, which are around 80% of our business, are growing at 5.6%, 7.6% at constant exchange rates, reaching over €22 billion. Performance in the accident and health line has been noteworthy, up around 8%, and motor is also up around 6%. The General P&C business is growing 1.5%, impacted by the slowdown of agro in Brazil, as well as the depreciation of the Latin American currencies.
Life business, which is around 20% of premiums, has grown 3% at constant exchange rates, resulting from slower sales activity in Q4 , with savings down 1% year on year. Life protection is up 3.6%, with notable growth in Mexico and Latin America, as well as healthy trends in Spain. I will now discuss the key trends by region. In Iberia, net profit has reached EUR 367 million, up 1.6%, with an ROE of 11.4%. Last year's results included a net impact of EUR 46.5 million due to the arbitration related to the bank exit. Excluding this item, profit growth was more than 17%. Realized gains are lower, with EUR 46 in 2024 compared to 74 million in 2023. The DANA storms during the fourth quarter were manageable, with a EUR 27 million net impact.
Growth trends are pretty strong, with non-life premiums up 6.5%, driven by strong General P&C performance, especially condominiums and homeowners, along with the accidental health business. Life premiums are down 5%, which I will explain later. Profitability in Latin has been excellent, with a net contribution of EUR 408 million and ROE around 18.8%. Non-life profitability is exceptional across the region, and financial income is performing well in most of the region. Premium growth trends are strong in Mexico, Colombia, Chile, and the Dominican Republic. Brazil continues to see exceptional profitability, with a net result of EUR 255 million and an ROE of almost 26%. Non-life combined ratio improved nearly six points to 72.8%, driven by agro and motor. The rest of Latin continues to show strong profitability, contributing EUR 153 million with improvements in technical results in most markets and also tailwinds from financial income.
In North America, the net result reached EUR 97.6 million compared to near breakeven last year, a big jump. This is driven by underwriting measures and significant tariff increases, along with benign weather. The combined ratio has decreased by almost seven points, now at 98.7%. In Puerto Rico, it's remarkable as well. Net profit was over EUR 25 million. In EMEA, losses have been reduced significantly to around EUR 30 million, improving by EUR 16.6 million. Turkey posted a profit of EUR 28 million, with the combined ratio down 14 percentage points and high financial income. On the other hand, the auto business remains challenging in both countries, Germany and Italy. Mapfre Net Profit Excellent, up 33% to over EUR 325 million.
The combined ratio is down two points to 93.6%. The most significant events in the year were the floods, well known by you in Brazil, as well as the storms in Europe.
As a reminder, last year, the Turkish earthquake and Hurricane Otis in Mexico had a combined impact of, sorry, and net result impact of over EUR 150 million. We continue to reinforce our prudence in provisions due to the ongoing rise in secondary perils. Finally, Mawdy continues to grow, posting a net result of nearly EUR 5 million. I would also like to address two specific items. Just as a reminder, in September, we recorded a EUR 90 million goodwill write-down in Germany, which is reflected in the holding and adjustments line. Last year, the same line, there was a EUR 75 million from the write-down of the U.S. businesses. Second item, there were around EUR 20 of positive tax adjustments at year-end compared with the 35 million recognized in September, and the reduction was due to year-end regulatory changes.
On the right side, you can see the ROEs and combined ratios for different segments. General P&C, this is our main line of business, both by premiums as well as profit, and has delivered a standing performance. Premiums are up 1.5%, and the combined ratio has improved nearly seven points to 80.9%. The net result stands at EUR 413 , a 187 million increase. In Iberia, premiums have risen by nearly 7%, fueled by homeowners and also condominiums. The result has nearly tripled to almost EUR 147 million, and the combined ratio has improved by 5.5 points to 94.5%. This excellent level includes a 1.6% impact from the DANA on the full-year combined ratio and 6.5% in Q4 .
In Brazil, premiums have decreased by 6% but are up over 2% in local currency. Agricultural insurance has been affected by the high interest rate environment and also the falling commodity prices.
The net result in the region is almost EUR 163 million, up 21.5%, and the combined ratio has improved to around 63% with no relevant events during the quarter. This excellent level is also supported by the diversification of the agro portfolio, which is sold as an insurance package, including life protection, around 40% of the premium, as well as property and crop insurance, around 30% each. North America had an excellent year with a combined ratio of 84.3%, supported by tariff adjustments in homeowners and benign weather. In fact, the ratio in December, which is typically a bad month, was the lowest in the last 10 years. The net result stood at EUR 50 compared to 17.6 million in 2023. In summary, General P&C continues to be highly profitable and also well diversified. Auto.
The Q4 results for the motor segment confirm the trends seen in previous quarters, showing gradual improvements. Losses have been reduced by more than EUR 40 to 26 million, with the combined ratio improving by 1.4 points to 104.6%. The group's average premium is growing by almost 11%, with total premiums up 6%, with some drag from currencies, especially in Latin. Insured units are down by 4.6% due to selected underwriting. The results reflect an outstanding turnaround in North America, while Brazil and the rest of Latin America are operating at combined ratios near breakeven, 100% or below, which is satisfactory given the interest rate environment in these markets. In Iberia, premiums have grown by over 6%, while our portfolio is down 3%, around 180,000 units, of which 80,000 of this reduction is due to fleet pruning.
The combined ratio had a slight uptick of 1.5 points, reaching 105.4%, impacted by increased costs resulting from various changes to the bodily injury compensation scale known by you by Baremo, which will affect both current and previous year claims, as well as a higher prudence margin applied by Mapfre to the outstanding claims provision. Eliminating these two effects, the underlying combined ratio for 2024 will be around 102%. On the other hand, material damage expenses remain under control thanks to cost containment progress, and as we said, tariffs will continue to be adapted in line with expected future costs. This makes us confident that we will reach technical profitability at some point in the coming eight quarters. In Brazil, premiums are down close to 9%, less than 1% in local currency, with the numbers of units relatively flat in the year.
The combined ratio of Brazil has decreased by 1.3 points to 101.2%. In North America, in local currency, the average premium is up 11.5%. Premiums are growing 6.5%, with units down over 5%. The combined ratio improves six points at around 101%, with a slight uptick in the fourth quarter due to seasonal effects, but still showing a strong recovery year on year. The turnaround has been outstanding, with a net profit of EUR 40 improving by 75 million thanks to technical improvements and tariff adjustments. In 2025, rate hikes should converge with expected claims inflation. In a nutshell, we continue to closely monitor the motor segment and tariff adjustments together with a stricter underwriting will help us to return to profitability. Life business. This segment contributed EUR 283 million to the result, with Iberia being the latest, sorry, the largest contributor.
In Iberia, total premiums are down 5%, affected by the exceptional issuance in savings in 2023, while protection premiums are up almost 4%, with the combined ratio standing at excellent 68.2%. We outperformed the market, which fell over 13% during the year. Net result, remarkable, EUR 168 million. Positive portfolio yields are contributing to the financial result, which with net realized gains of EUR 29 million, 10 higher than last year. As a reminder, 2023 included EUR 29 million from the bank exit. Excluding these extraordinary items, the result will be up 8%. In Brazil, protection premiums are down 6% but growing over 2% in Brazilian real. There is some slowdown in investment and lending in the economy due to the recent rate hikes, which are affecting sales.
This is a very profitable business, and the combined ratio stands at an excellent 84%, although up 4.5 points due to higher acquisition expenses already commented in previous presentations. Regarding the rest of countries, volumes are up by 27%, led by other Latin. Mexico is noteworthy, growing almost 49% in Life protection. And the result reached EUR 49 million, with a reduction of EUR 37 million due to an increase in the run-off annuity portfolio reserves in Colombia, those that are linked to the legal minimum wage, which, as you know, significantly increased at year-end. On the other hand, protection continues growing its contribution to the net result. Now I will hand over to José Luis to discuss the main balance sheet items.
Thank you, Fernando. So shareholders' equity stands strong at over EUR 8.5 billion, up over 5% on the back of this year's excellent result.
Market movements had a limited impact on our closing position. The slight revaluation of our investment portfolio has mitigated the low negative currency conversion differences. The strong rally of the US dollar towards EUR, up nearly 7%, helped offset the 16% fall in the Brazilian real and the depreciation of all the Latin American currencies. Leverage is under 2.2, around the 2.4 framework, which was the reference we announced at our AGM, reflecting our disciplined approach to capital and debt management and the growing equity base. Now, I would like to take a moment to discuss cash flows upstreaming within Mapfre Group.
In 2024, we achieved more than EUR 700 a 66 million increase. These cash flows were allocated to pay EUR 477 million in dividends, as well as to cover overhead interest expenses and other capital needs. As you can see, our sources of cash generation are well diversified.
Iberia remains the most important contributor with EUR 316 million. Latin contributed EUR 200 million with an increase in Brazil, reaching over EUR 150 million. North America had the most relevant increase, reaching over EUR 60 million. EMEA increase is up to EUR 120 million. Asset allocation has been relatively stable during the year, increasing corporate bonds and reducing sovereign and cash. The Spanish govies remain our largest exposure with EUR 9.6 billion. Our portfolio is defensive and well diversified. Falling yields have reduced the unrealized losses in our portfolio, with relative stability during the year. We have almost EUR 40 billion in third-party assets, making us one of the leading non-bank players in Spain, with an exceptional increase in pension funds this year, up almost 9%.
Our nearly EUR 46 billion investment portfolio, together with the asset management business, brings total assets under management to over EUR 59 billion, up 4% compared to last year. On the right, you can see our main fixed income portfolios. As a reminder, a large portion is immunized or matched. I will focus on the actively managed portfolios, which are the main profit contributors. Regarding the euro area, yields are up over 45 basis points during the year at Mapfre and 10 basis points in Iberia. If we exclude linkers, yields are up 20 basis points higher in Iberia, non-life, 10 basis points at Mapfre.
Accounting yields are still below current market levels in most portfolios. In other markets, accounting yields in Latin are up and still below market levels, with a nearly 20 basis point increase in Brazil during the year. In North America, the increase is 14 basis points.
There were no relevant changes in duration during the quarter. The higher yields have been reflected in financial income, as you can see in the figures on the left for our main non-life unit. Iberia is flat due to lower realized gains. As a reminder, in 2023, there was the sale of a relevant property. In Brazil, financial income is down over 7% due to the currency depreciation, and in the last quarter, we are already seeing the impact of the rising interest rate scenario, with the rest of Latin America showing growth. North America has been stable, while in EMEA, financial income is slightly down compared to 2023, as there were high forex differences from the lira depreciation in the second half of last year. The financial result in Turkey is expected to remain strong due to high interest rates. Mapfre continues to show strong profitability.
On the right, you can see the net financial gains, which reached EUR 40 with 29 million from the Iberia life business and another EUR 11 million in non-life units. These figures include relevant gains on the equity portfolio, which have offset the impact of real estate provisions. Here you can see the main KPIs under IFRS 17 and 9 compared to Local GAAP. I will comment on the most relevant ones. Insurance revenue, which reached a little over EUR 25 billion, is up 3%. The net result stands at EUR 968 under IFRS 66 million higher than Local GAAP. IFRS 17 had a EUR 98 million positive impact. The risk margin and loss component were negative but were offset by CSM movements and other adjustments.
IFRS 9 had a negative EUR 32 million impact with two main drivers: realized gains on equity recorded under OCI, which offset the mutual fund valuation gains booked in P&L, so holding equity amounts to EUR 8.9 billion, growing at a similar rate than under local GAAP. The gross CSM contractual service margin was EUR 2.5 billion. It is down around EUR 100 million during the year, EUR 92 million of which correspond to currency depreciation, mainly the Brazilian real. The CCM net of tax and minorities was EUR 1.6 billion, up over 2%. The 93% combined ratio under IFRS has improved slightly, down 3.5 points.
The return on equity stood at 11% under IFRS. Further disclosure of IFRS figures can be found on the annexes of the presentation, as well as in our annual accounts, which are available on our website. Now I will hand the floor over to Antonio for closing remarks.
Thank you, José Luis. Now I would like to highlight our financial strategic performance during last year. The close of 2024 marks the end of the third year of our new strategic plan. We have continued to implement our strategy supported by the structural and leadership changes that took place last year, moving the group into a new phase, more focused on growth and results. Enhancing technical excellence, improving productivity, and leveraging Mapfre's potential across all of our markets are all contributing to ensure we met our public targets. Referring to the financial commitments, we are very pleased with the achievement of the targets on the current plan. Premiums have grown by 5%, excluding life savings, compared to a target of 6%.
Currency depreciation has had a significant impact on our KPIs, and we would have reached our target at constant exchange rates. Our average ROE target for the period is 10%-11%, excluding extraordinary items. If we exclude the goodwill write down, we have posted a solid 12% this year, well above the target, and we are still at 11% if we include the write down. The average combined ratio target for this three-year period is 95%-96%, and performance was excellent at 94.4%. These financial figures are on the local accounting, but we are also meeting these targets under IFRS. We are highly committed to sustainability. We have achieved our 2024 targets, and we are well on our way to meeting our 2026 public commitments.
We have achieved carbon neutrality in 10 of the 15 target countries, and we will continue expanding to the remaining five in the next two years. Over 90% of our portfolio is now ESG rated, and we aim to reach over 95% by 2026. Additionally, women now occupy 34.5% of top management positions, very close to our 36% target. As you can see, we have reported an excellent year with outstanding results, confirming the success of our new strategic plan with most financial targets on track. Our solid and profitable business model allows us to grow steadily, backed by strong financial positions and low debt levels. Mapfre continues to hold leading positions in most markets in a challenging and demanding context. We have the financial strength to seize opportunities for organic growth and also open to any opportunity aligned with our strategy that may arise.
We are moving forward with our sustainability plans, and we are also making significant strides in digital transformation, innovation, as well as artificial intelligence, but always putting our people and stakeholders at the core of our strategy. The environment we are operating remains highly unstable. We have overcome the threat of inflation, but the world is still far from achieving geopolitical stability, which remains one of the greatest threats and has become the new normal. Mapfre has already demonstrated its ability to thrive in a constantly changing environment. The coming years will continue to be demanding, but we are approaching them with optimism. The final dividend announced this morning is proof of our confidence in the future. We will remain committed to strengthening our relationship with shareholders and creating value for society as a whole.
Before I hand the floor over to Felipe for the Q&A session, I would like to say a few words regarding the orderly succession plan that we have just announced this morning. Our CFO, Chief Financial Officer Fernando Mata, has held various responsibilities in the company, leading with commitment and loyalty for almost thirty years, the last 10 of which as Group CFO and the last 7 as a member of the board and Vice Chairman. He will be succeeded in these functions by José Luis Jiménez, who will take over Fernando's role in upcoming presentations. Additionally, either José Manuel Inchausti, our Executive Vice Chairman, or I will also participate in these events. Fernando, a few words if you want.
Yeah, if you allow me, first of all, I would like to congratulate José Luis for his appointment.
To you, Antonio, it has been a great honor to be the first board member, the board chaired by you for many, many years, and also to be part of this, to me, the greatest executive team I ever met, and also this part of this largest in the world family, which is well known by Mapfre. Despite my baby face, I'm turning 64. Sorry about that. In March. Believe me, frankly, I mean, it's time to sit down. I will be retiring as a CFO in March after almost 10 years. I will never forget. That's what I had to say. Never forget. I will continue to collaborate. I will be around, obviously. I will continue collaborating with Mapfre to the extent.
You can improve your handicap now.
That's correct. It's tough.
Anyway, to collaborate with Mapfre as a non-executive position, in a non-executive position, to the extent that Mapfre requires, obviously, and you, bankers, financial analysts, investors, thank you very much to all of you. First, for your presence, your questions, your insights, your recommendations. They're very valuable, very, very valuable for me, and above all, for the respect that you always have with me. Thank you again.
I will take over now. Thank you, Fernando. Although most of you are already familiar with the process, let me quickly remind you of the details of this Q&A session. Those who are here in person can raise your hand, and I will give you the floor, and please introduce yourselves before asking questions. I can hardly see your faces from here. It is possible to ask questions both in Spanish or English at your convenience.
For those of you connected online, you can ask the Q&A tool on the bottom of your screen, and we'll try to answer them as time allows. The IR team, I must remind you, will be available for any pending questions after the call. Now let's start with the first question. Please, Max. Back on the main. It's a microphone. Yeah. No problem. No, but we need it because that people are in English. For the translation, we need the microphone. We need it. And also, there's streaming.
[Foreign language]for the presentation.
Good morning. Thank you very much for the presentation. Before I do anything else, Fernando, thank you very much and best of luck in your future life. I have two questions. One has to do with Motor in Iberia. I would like to ask you, what are your expectations?
How do you think the portfolio is going to evolve? Because we saw that in the fourth quarter, there was a drop. Are you expecting stability in 2025, or do you think you're going to continue to lose clients? And what are the average increases in premiums that we can expect for '25? And my second question, Mapfre RE, January is over. I would imagine most renewals have been signed. So could you give us a little bit of granularity regarding expectations for 2025?
Okay, I'll start. As far as our auto business is concerned, in Spain specifically, we are, well, we remain optimistic as far as our portfolio retainment capacity. We believe we are being very conservative. We are adjusting our premiums, but we are adapting ourselves in a bespoke manner, and we're trying to offset it as best as possible.
This new business has been affected for all companies because other competitors are doing the same. They're protecting their portfolio, and they're trying to be kinder to customers who've been loyal for years when compared to others. New production fees are higher, and this really makes getting these customers more difficult. The portfolio we've lost, we're talking about 1% through 2024, 170,000-180,000 policies, is something we were looking for because these are profiles we don't want. Part of the fleet market is less profitable, and while we've got customers who didn't want to accept the fees, but we believe that we shouldn't keep on losing our own portfolio. We believe that we should. The first six months until we stabilize everything will be closer to our global ratio. Our average premium figures, I don't know. Yeah, no, the figure we mentioned throughout the presentation, the average premium grew by 9%.
As we've said, when we think of the future, we'll adapt it to the future based on prices and exogenous factors. But there's no fixed rate. This is something we see on a case-by-case basis. We've got a very diversified business, and usually customers have several policies hired with us, and it goes, it changes. As far as Mapfre RE is concerned, we're very optimistic. We are wrapping up with the renewal for January. Most of our business is the group, and this is Mapfre RE, non-group. We believe that our non-group business has kept on increasing reasonably, and we've reached the maximum, and we've been able to manage this in 8%, 9%. We've managed to have good results. We believe that Mapfre RE's margins after is going to be very positive when we ignore the business volatility, any impact we can have.
I can guarantee that the California fires, while very important for the American market, $30-40 billion for Mapfre RE, it's a reasonable figure. It's not going to really endanger our earnings for this year. And I think we had a comment on DANA. You asked about DANA? No. No. Okay. Maybe. Okay. For the next person. Okay. If you allow me. [Foreign language] .
I think the question is results for Q4 , Iberia, minor technical loss. What is the impact of the DANA flash flood? And are there any other one-off events that we would believe have affected us in that quarter? When we addressed the market, we talked about EUR 27 million, but perhaps we do want to add a little bit of flavor regarding the flash flood, DANA.
Well, DANA overall is the biggest catastrophe in Spain.
It was laser-focused in an area in Valencia, as you all know, and the impact to insurance can go over EUR 3 billion. When I talk about insurance, I'm including the consortium, which absorbs about 95% of these losses. This is a public-private partnership that we have here in Spain and which allows us for most damage caused by this climate event are covered by this consortium, which does not have enough funds to face these losses. Mapfre, we're talking about EUR 34 million of direct impact between direct and reinsurance. So it's basically residual and it will have no impact on our account.
All right. Thank you. Next question, please. Francisco from Alantra. And thank you for taking our questions. Congratulations to Fernando and to José Luis. Yes. So my first question has to do with Motor in Spain and in the United States of America.
Last year, we began the year thinking about technical profitability being a possibility at some point towards the end of 2024. As time passed, we waited until maybe the beginning of 2025. So the question is, when will we see these two markets being profitable? What is the trade-off? Premiums, policies, what can we expect? How, when will we see a more normalized profitability in these two markets?
Without giving away any specific facts, I can say that we are very optimistic when it comes to in the States. We believe we already have a reasonable size, even bigger than what we had before the pandemic. Having a combined ratio in the States of about 100 is very reasonable and very common given the environment's maturity and the competitiveness we have.
And this is a better situation than we had before the pandemic because, well, this really means we can have a reasonably good profitability, especially in North America, given our rates going up. And well, it's one of the highest we've ever had in this area. So it's been one of the highest ROEs, and we believe that we had no specific amendment. We said we would improve throughout 2024, and we've improved to basis points, our combined ratio. So maybe we've been over-cautious than what we expected. So a solid increase or solid deviations when it comes to personal, not only in frequency, but the impact that Fernando mentioned. And so we've got the reference, which has been increasing in the last three years, and which, given the scale, well, the scale varies from company to company.
The market has shown what the FT has published, which in the last part of the year, the combined ratio, the auto combined ratio worsened. So we still have the market still has to absorb these impacts, which, as everybody knows, these increases take place whenever there's a sentence or a transaction, and that can be years after the policy was underwritten. So I can advance that at the start of the year, we have already seen an increase in our combined ratio here in Spain.
Thank you very much. I have two questions which have been posed by persons who are not here physically, Alex McKenzie and Paz Ojeda from Banco Sabadell. They have the same question, basically.
That degree of prudence that we've talked about, which we have taken into account when talking about reserves for the auto business, they would like to know what the forecast is as per the combined ratio. I think that that's been answered. The follow-up question is, do we still have the ambition to reduce the combined ratio below 100% in autos? Looking more into the future, a possible combined ratio that would be between 95%, say 96%, this for the longer term. Fernando, please.
Yes, if you allow me, Antonio, I would like to add to what I've said throughout the presentation. As Antonio said, ever since the accident takes place until we had the bodily injury estimate, there will be some time. There are claims with neurological damage. Like this can take years. So there's an offset with a pay.
So a 2020 claim, if the final report we received in 2024, we pay on the 2024 Baremo, as we call it, scale, which we pay in 2024. We didn't expect this to have such an important impact. And I'll explain why for Mapfre later specifically. And we've had some negative deviations, and this has led us to reinforcing our prudence very carefully, which is why I'm saying, which is why I'm talking about previous year's ratio on this one. So I believe that the underlying, we don't have a specific data of about 102%. This prudential margin is very difficult to divide it on a year-by-year claim basis, but we reinforced in April, sorry, in Q4 , that's the prudence we undertook. So I'll give you an example we usually don't discuss, which is very, very clear.
Our generic provision, the IBNR, non-declared, but well, in an auto exposure, which reduces risks, well, we've increased it from EUR 140 to 190 million, EUR 50 million ever since 2023 to 2024 only as far as cars are concerned. That's two points in our combined ratio. I don't want you to think that there are two points in the combined ratio that are X, just that we've been very cautious and we have to keep on monitoring accidents to see how these costs evolve. And why Mapfre? Well, our claim retention is very high. We've got a very high priority. We're very aware in the business that there are companies, medium and higher size, which have an XL, and they've got a priority of EUR 2 million to a point something million. So above that, all cost is the reinsured, is down to the reinsured.
Given our size and our capital position and our risk diversification, we've got a higher level of retention. So all deviation remains. I would like to apologize for all these technicalities, but I think it was worth our time to clearly explain where the underlying combined ratio comes. This 102%, okay.
Thank you very much. We had questions from Carlos Peixoto from Caixa. These improvements that we've seen vis-à-vis other market players, why is Mapfre at a different level, if you will? I think that you've answered beautifully when you've addressed the issue of impact and reinsurance. Ladies and gentlemen, more questions, perhaps? All right then. Yes, there seems to be a hand up there. Yes. Juan Pablo López from Santander. I have a question. It has to do with capital management and EMEA. What do you think the future holds? Perhaps something might crop up in Germany.
Might that be of interest? Then the use of capital. What do you think is more attractive? A bank assurance agreement, a specific region, perhaps, or are you going to continue to focus on EMEA?
Our bet on EMEA is we don't believe that Spain is part of the European Middle East and Africa. We've reduced our presence to Turkey, Malta, Germany, Italy, and that was what we believed. Those gave us reasonably good results. We've got Germany's auto, which, as you know, it's a critical situation. That's what we're working on. We won't leave Germany. We've always believed that Germany was a strategic option that should go further with no specific landmine, but we believe that we've got a million vehicles insured. It's a company with a, well, we have a brand and we've got good presence.
And what we have to do is we have to profitably. The German market is very cyclical. It's on the bad part of the cycle, which we see every six to eight years. We have to power through. Then we've got better expectations for 2025, as we saw with Italy. Italy's auto cost was affected earlier, and we've been patient in order to keep on improving little by little. So our appetite, our local appetite to manage capital in the future, as we've said, is the markets where we find ourselves were very comfortable. And we would like, wherever we are, to improve our alliances with distributors and, well, other businesses. We've got important businesses, markets like Brazil, Mexico, the U.S., Germany come the future, and Spain. Spain is a very important market for us.
It's 30, 30-something% of our business, but we should aspire to a bank insurance product, bank insurance product that really helps us to be more multi-channel than we already are.
We have a question that comes from remote. Could you talk about DANA Auto, General Insurance, Mapfre? I think that we've already provided information. EUR 27 million, as we said. Iberia, another EUR 7 million for Mapfre. So the total impact is of approximately EUR 34 million. And then Iberia basically is divided in, well, first, agro, combined agro because of the hail. Then everything that is a result of water, rainfall, so auto and so on. And I believe that perhaps the most important impact has to do with the combined agro, frankly. The rest are lesser. They're important, of course, and especially if you accumulate, well, that adds up to those EUR 27 million that we've talked about before.
As to a different area, let's talk about Brazil. Paz Ojeda asks about the combined ratio of agro and this independently. And perhaps more specifically, do we believe that new legislation, especially in the insurance sector, will they affect the competitive horizon of the insurance market in Brazil? What would you say to that?
Since we're talking about Brazil, I believe that the combined ratio agro and you correct me if I'm wrong, we're talking about 50, 50-something. Yeah, it is true what we've been discussing the last couple of years that at some point it should worsen. But the fact of the matter is that the last two years have been much better than we expected. This leads us to believe that 2025 could be better, so could be different.
It is true that last year there was a law to protect the agri business, which was enacted very late, July 2024, where in other years it's usually approved in March. That really pushed the schedule back. I think that all expectations towards Brazil in 2025 lead us to believe that this quarter will be a good quarter for agro. We expect that the Brazilian economy grow back by this business, by this sector and private business. Something else we have to add is an increase in interest rates, which could lead us to a point where a lot of people don't want to fund this package we mentioned earlier, which is basically three components. We've got life, we've got real estate, property, and well, agro. What we expect for 2025 is for this trend to continue.
But it is true that in the case of Brazil, there are two cases in favor. One of them is the interest rate, which we've got the Selic as a reference, which has grown. The central Bank has increased, and we could reach 5.25 points, 15.25 points, and it will obviously have tailwinds on a financial point from a financial standpoint, and something we've mentioned throughout the presentation was the devaluation of the Brazilian Real, which was of about 16%, and this has been affected by the new presidency, by the new administration, the Fed, and what we've seen, well, probably the real instead of depreciating will appreciate by about 5%, so when we take a look at this, we have to take a look at the net impact, but we believe we're relatively optimistic that this trend can continue.
Okay, and I'm going to wrap up with the combined ratio for the agro business is very, very good, and it is volatile, of course. And so far, we could be affected by weather and climate events, but most of the business, we share our fate with the Brazilian bank, and they receive 75% of the profits and 75% of earnings and negative impacts. And the reinsurance policy we have there is more than enough to ensure that this volatility and the earnings that affect Mapfre is very limited, and so we can keep on getting reasonable earnings, especially in more adverse situations. Thank you very much, Antonio. They were asking Carlos Peixoto and Alex McKenzie from BNP about this, what was the solidity of these things. But I think you've offered a wonderful response. And well, these are business lines with wonderful profit margins.
Carlos Peixoto from Caixa has another question. He would like us to address the issue of the combined ratio of Mapfre RE, which was under 90% in Q4 if we see them individualized. He asked also, is there a release of reserves in this Q4 ? We've been talking about that prudential margin. We've been talking about being in the upper portion of those intervals. The question is, what should the combined ratio of Mapfre be sustainably speaking in the long term?
I'll answer myself. What we've done this Q4 , we've kept on with the reinforcing of the prudential margin. We find ourselves in the 90th percentile, which is the highest that we have in the IFRS memorandum. This Q4 has had a few events, and that's why we had these earnings.
And what we have, this has added 1.5 basis points overall gross and motor. So if we find ourselves in 93.something%, we are underlying in 92%, which is it's been a wonderful year. And the run rate should be good. And it's been a lack of catastrophes, relevant catastrophes in the insurance amount. DANA, for example, was EUR 220 million. So we should have a lower run rate to that one, to the underlying combined run rate, which we mentioned, which is 92%. Okay. Very good.
Thank you very much, Fernando. I have a question now from Paz. No, two questions from Paz Ojeda. The first question has to do with the year 2024. Would those numbers be valid in 2025, 2026? They were very good, as Antonio mentioned in the presentation.
The combined ratio of general, that 81%, general insurance, 81%, it's good. Is it exceptional, though? Sustainably speaking, what would we think of in the long term?
Well, related to this question, if this is sustainable, we're working on ensuring that these figures can be improved. That's what we want to do within the group. If 81 is exceptional property, well, that's something that we probably have to deal with if we regress to the mean, of course. But of course, auto should improve. So the net effect could be positive for us. Yes, we've had a wonderful behavior and exceptional in the U.S. Homeowners last year, last year was slightly worse. The fee changes we implemented, which were done quick and fast, had an impact, a positive impact on homeowners. The East Coast and the States has been very good.
It's been very cold, but it hasn't snowed as much as other years. So there weren't any huge damages. And we've got a big portfolio, and we will always be affected by weather events, even though we're covered by reinsurance. And well, what we can do to deal with different businesses and Property and Casualty is very positive. Okay.
We don't seem to have further questions via remote. Perhaps there are questions here from the meeting room, from the auditorium. That is not the case. So once again, thank you all very, very much. Maybe Antonio, maybe Fernando wants to close the session. Well, yes, thank you. First, thank you once again. Thanks to all of you for being with us. Thank you for depositing your trust in Mapfre. And thank you for the opportunity that you give us. You are with us. You analyze what our weaknesses may be.
Insurance activities, by definition, are volatile, complex, under tremendous supervision. And those of you who are experts know that it's relatively easy to follow, but sometimes it's much more complex than what we see at a first glance. So we depend on external events, right, which may condition our earnings. Our degree of prudence and confidence is high. Now, it has been high in the past also, but indeed, everything we have done to implement the necessary measures to correct whatever possible deviations might have existed are forceful. It's true that in auto, we have much to do in Spain, in Germany, to a lesser degree in Italy, in Spain for the most part. And we believe that it will only be good news in upcoming months.
The year 2025 is going to be the year in which we're going to find ourselves not in necessarily the best of all possible conditions, but in a much better condition. We will no longer be dragged down. We are confident that our provisions and our tariffs are what they need to be in order to deal with the current scenario, which is resulting in notable increases well beyond inflation levels when we talk about vendors, when we talk about sentences. So again, thank you. And as I said before, Fernando, thank you very much for your many years with the company. Of course, Fernando is going to continue to work with us. He will be non-executive, but will continue to contribute, as I say.
And those of us who remain on board will definitely do our utmost to guarantee the sustainability of our business and of our commitment because we are committed. We are not here just today. We're here to stay. We're not into speculation. And again, we trust the model that we have built, which adds value, which does definitely add value. All stakeholders, of course, and perhaps more especially shareholders. This is something that we have insisted on because those dividends that we're paying out this year, it's essential. And that dividend will continue to improve if our earnings continue to improve as we expect in the upcoming years. Thank you all very much.