Powszechny Zaklad Ubezpieczen SA (WSE:PZU)
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May 6, 2026, 5:04 PM CET
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Earnings Call: Q2 2023

Aug 31, 2023

Tomasz Kulik
CFO, PZU

Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. I'd like to welcome you to the meeting presentation of the earnings of the PZU Group after Q2 of this year. Our presentation on a standard basis, we split in the following components. We'll start with a short summary of where the market is, where is our position on this market, what has happened, what we would like your attention, turn your attention to, especially with move on to the summary of financial results. We'll discuss what has been happening in each of the key segments. We will sum up where, after the first half of this year, we are at concerning the implementation of the main metrics of the, key metrics of the strategy. Of course, we are starting with the main accomplishment, major accomplishment of PZU, the growth in sales, development of scale, and the high profitability.

This is according to us, this is what should be the good summary of the Q2. In terms of what is happening in the insurance operations, the revenue from your insurance increase growth in Q2 more than 9%. We are growing practically in each dimension, both in terms of insurance, non-life insurance in Poland, more than 10% growth. Also, in terms of , first of all, I would say, the non-motor insurance that is characterized by very strong profitability, a very high profitability. What you probably have noticed already is a continuous growth of, increase of, non-motor insurance in the PZU portfolio. We are growing in terms of our foreign business. Very strong growth under the pressure of what's happening on the Ukrainian market. However, including the Ukrainian market, this growth is more than 20%.

The growth mainly due to a very strong growth rate in terms of the motor business, motor insurance, in this case, very strong growth of prices, strong growth of sales in terms of the health insurance business. On the other hand, in terms of life insurance, slightly slower growth. Let me remind you that we are talking about the revenue from the insurance, not, as we've done until the end of last year, the written premium.

Therefore, especially in terms of the non-life insurance, this is more of a metric that can be referred to the premium earned in the according to the previous standard, in terms of assets under management, what we are drawing your attention to is the fact that we are able to take advantage of the favorable macroeconomic conditions, especially taking into account the interest rate level, that creates a very good condition, very good environment for investments of treasury bonds, maturing treasury bonds portfolio, which are mainly used to cover the liabilities under the insurance. Here, the main portfolio, it's reserved for Q2, PLN 606 million. Year-over-year, this is more than 70% growth rate. The increased expansion of the scale of operation in terms of assets under management versus last year, very strong growth.

Of course, they are mainly in the function of the change of valuation. Last year, very difficult on the asset management market, strong declines. Here, the situation this year, totally different. Strong inflows in case of our TFI, PLN 1.3 billion in the first half of this year. A very solid result in terms of a healthcare pillar. We are on a good track to achieve the strategic goal. After the first half of this year, PLN 700 million, the growth rate at the level of more than 26%. We are growing in terms of subscriptions, we are growing in terms of insurance products, we are growing in terms of the scale and access. These are the most important pieces of information from a point of view of the healthcare pillar.

In terms of second quarter, as we mentioned, a very solid growth rate. As a matter of fact, a very solid continuation of the growth coming from the first quarter, the increase in insurance revenue up to PLN 6.6 billion, more than 9%. First of all, the growth rate observed in the non-life insurance segment, where, in terms of nominal values, we have a growth rate at the level of almost PLN 600 million. They are achieved mainly on the side of the Polish, from the Polish entities, where this growth rate is brought about by the growing scale. As we mentioned, the scale, which is, in this case, the derivatives of very strong growth rate achieved last year, in the second half of last year, continued this year.

So the non-motor insurance products in both segments, but in particular, in the corporate segment, in terms of the motor insurance products, first of all, the MOD, the growth rate in the region of 17%. In the TPL products, slightly less growth, mainly the scale what's good, we are growing the MOD. This is a part of motor insurance products that, first of all, is a profitable risk. B, the growing one in terms of, from a point of view of, saturation in the motor portfolio, products portfolio. We are growing more than 1.5% in terms of the saturation. This is a very strong growth rate. So on one hand, the scale, on the other hand, in the case of MOD, the price is derivative of the increase of value of subjects of insurance.

So what we are observing on the motor market, vehicle markets, in terms of the increase of prices of the vehicles. On the side of, life insurance segment, increase of the revenue, mainly due to the higher release of CSM, Contractual Service Margin. This is the growth rate in terms of, growth rate, additional PLN 57 million versus last year. Also, stronger, greater flows in order to cover the cost of maintenance, administration expenses, acquisition costs, expenses related to maintaining the life portfolio year- over- year, more than PLN 40 million, which translates to the growth rate from the life insurance products, in the, at the level of about 5.5%. That's all regarding the top line results, top line figures. Let's move on to talking about the profitability of each component, the so-called building blocks, in terms of our income statement.

First of all, very strong, very solid earnings, very good profitability raise in terms of core insurance operations, the COR, combined operating ratio, the non-life insurance, around 86%. The margin around the group, the individual continued almost 4 percent, according to the old standard, more than 26%. Therefore, this demonstrates what kind of market we are dealing with. I will elaborate on that further on the presentation. But so very strong profitability raise in terms of the core operations. In terms of the main portfolio, strong growth rate primarily achieved on the bonds portfolio. The interest results goes up by more than 30%. The second growth engine, growth driver, is the own real estate, in-house real estate portfolio, close to similar growth rate, almost 30% in terms of the growth rate in this segment.

Of course, we are a beneficiary of the fact that the maturing historical tranches of long-term bonds, we are able to refinance at quite a high level. This higher level of interest rates, we are able to extend the maturity for the subsequent years of such high interest rates. Very strong growth of a contribution from the banking segment to the earnings for Q2. Let me remind you of what is quite an obvious thing. First of all, it's the interest result. We know what's been happening to the interest rates. On the other hand, to a similar degree, not a lesser degree, the issue of charges in this segment, which were quite strong last year at this time of year. This year, the significantly lower levels.

We're talking about the bank protection scheme, the BFG, the allowances for the FX loans, also the loan hold relief periods. So vis-a-vis events that had an impact upon the non-representative costs on for the banks, including the banks owned by the PZU Group. This quarter, the contribution of the banks to the earnings, more than half, PLN 500 million . This all leads to a very strong, very high net profit, PLN 1.54 billion , and the ROE, rate, return on equity, more than 20%. The adjusted rate of on return on equity. This is what we proposed. We proposed when we recalibrate, when we commit the strategy in April this year, close to almost 25%.

All of that, while maintaining the high security of the operations conducted, very high solvency capital ratio, 523%. Therefore, solvency ratio so much higher than the peer group. At the same time, our capital strength and the rating affirmed by the S&P rating agency in June this year, so quite a fresh confirmation. All of that allows us to continue the attractive dividend policy, attractive for the shareholders' dividend policy. Soon, the dividend will be paid out from the earnings of last year. The increase of the dividend per share, earnings per share, dividend per share, almost 24%. Our goal is, of course, to grow the business, but a sustainable development, sustainable growth. We want to reduce the barriers, support the preventive, prophylactic activities, engaging in the corporate social responsible activities.

At the same time, quite strongly getting involved in the fact that the PZU Group, maybe it's not. We are not yet there, but we want our group to be associated with modern solution and state-of-the-art solution, the group that is very strongly changing in the digital arena. Therefore, we are investing in various types of projects. We are setting up new teams, the goal of which is to build or to invite artificial intelligence to PZU. So that for now, a bit on a testing basis, but we are, we want to do first pilot project, the first project based on the totally new technologies. At this point, let's move on to the summary of our operations against the backdrop of the market, and usually, we do it based on the latest available data. This is the data for the first quarter of 2023.

Against this background, we will be demonstrating our achievement in terms of non-life insurance market in Poland. That's the segment we are starting with. Usually, in this part of the market, at the beginning of the year, under a strong growth that we observed based on both on the motor and non-motor insurance markets. The motor market is growing more than 10%, mainly, as I mentioned, thanks to the acceleration in the MOD insurance policies of a 31% growth year-over-year. We are talking about that. Two parameters at the same time had an impact upon the situation, both the price as well as the scale. On the other hand, slightly lower, 4.7%, 4.1% growth on the direct operations.

The strong, the growth rate on the TPL portfolio, where the market is growing both in terms of the scale, but in this case, we can confirm, based on the KNF, Financial Supervisory Authority, data growth regarding the average price. The preliminary data after Q2 demonstrate the continuation, what we already observed in Q1. And let me be frank here, we do hope that it's not just a correction of what was happening over the last few quarters, but it's just the beginning of a new trend. And we do strongly wish ourselves that this is comes true. Further growth in terms of, non-motor insurance products, more than 16%, mainly the groups 8%, 9%. So the property insurance, almost 18%, TPL, general TPL, the assistance products, these are the areas where the market has been growing the most strongly.

Against this market drop, we are growing in terms of, share of attributed premium, almost 32% in terms of share in the profit pool, the technical profit pool of, market, we are at the region of, at the level of 43.5%. In terms of, what is happening on the motor insurance market in Poland, first of all, as I mentioned, a change in the average price, which you can see on this chart in the upper part of the slide.

Confirmed in Q2, this is not a very strong growth, but definitely it's a growth rate that we do hope finish the artificially extended up to almost six years, this cycle, the period of the price adjustments, price corrections, which due to the pandemic, due to the fact that this pandemic had a strong impact upon the changes in the frequency regarding the motor-related claims, allowed for maintaining this situation for a very long period of time. These quite low frequencies, as you can see, are staying with us. We are not returning to the levels from before the pandemic.

One can try to explain it by such facts that, first of all, the way, t he change of way of life, work-life balance, work model, hybrid solutions, improvement of the quality of the road, changes to the tariffs, the fines, the penalty points, all the issues related to topics related to the inflation development, which translates into the cost of fuel. These are the parameters that had, have an impact recently on the shape of distribution of a frequency, claim frequency on the Polish market. What makes us happy is the fact that Q2 all the time continues at lower levels after a slight correction taking place in Q1. Against this marked backdrop, the PZU Group, measured based on the written premium, I will explain to you in a moment why this is not a representative metric, is growing at the rate of 5.6%.

This growth rate you can observe mainly in the MOD insurance, in the TPL, the growth less than 5%. Why this is not a representative metric? As you have seen on the previous chart, we are growing in terms of revenue from insurance measured according to the new standard, in the region of around 10%. This is not a representative metric in case of a PZU Group. We already mentioned the number of times due to the growing portfolio of contracts agreements longer than 12 months, which are concluded by the corporate segment, by our subsidiary of the distribution channel, PZU TUW, which in very many cases is concluding contracts with the coverage period being 18 months +. This is what happened in the second quarter of last year.

Therefore, in order to bring some comparability to this information, we would have to adjust last year by PLN 150 million . This is the scale of the business that is not recurring after 12 months. It will be recurring or renewing, partly this year, partly next year, and next year will also be the year where there will be accumulation of the events that were excluded from the renewals in 2023 due to the fact that the duration, the coverage period is 18 months. Therefore, the adjusted values, I am quick to provide this information from the point of view of the growth rates achieved this year on the adjusted portfolio.

Non-motor portfolio is more than 10%, and the entire portfolio, the growth rate in the region of 9.6%, in line with the ones observed or measured according to the new standard. As you can see, the saturation, MOD to TPL is growing, which, from the point of view of the product, is a very good piece of information. From the point of view of the product initiatives, we would like to draw your attention to, first of all, to the further process of integrating with central register of vehicles and drivers. This is very important from the point of view of better alignment between the price and risk and the quotation processes and sales processes.

Today, this is not just our data, system data, but also the data that we are trying to acquire from third-party sources in order to provide better quotations, still better quotations, and be even better from the point of view of price, but the price that guarantees profitability to be even better provider of the solutions for our customers. On the non-motor, in the non-motor segment, two pieces of information, PZU Dom, PZU House, and Voyager. In terms of PZU Dom, take into account the scale of the developments in terms of the risk, flood risk, and all the things that are happening as far as the intensification of large claims, large disasters, natural disaster. We introduced a 30-day grace period in terms of flood risk, but at the same time, we are increasing the scope of assistance for the customers.

So the scope of the assistance services provided, we introduced the degressive tariff in terms of, movables, home movables, so that the price, when the insurance sum goes up, so the price could be as attractive as possible for our customers. In terms of, trends on the life insurance market in Poland, the market is growing both in terms of, periodic premium products as well as the single premium product. In the case of, periodic premium products, which is the majority of this market, almost 80% of the market, is growing by 3.8%, mainly in respect to the riders. Those increases in the rate of 7.6% and the base product a bit lower, everything under the pressure of insurance, tied to the unit-linked insurance products.

So the insurance products that are characterized by very strong investment part, investment component. In terms of the single premium products, the breakthrough of the downward trend that has been observed over a long time now, the downward trend that was due to the unit-linked insurance products, investment type insurance products. But in terms of the protection products, the growth quite, rate quite strong, more than 50%, which make up, offset the premiums on the side of unit-linked insurance products. Against this growing, changing market, the share of PZU main continues to stay about 40%, 42.3%. In terms of growth of our portfolio, the group continued the written premium. This is very important. One should remember that the Polish market, the standard hasn't changed all the times.

Therefore, we are talking about it, and we're measuring the revenue level in the insurance based on the written premium. Therefore, the growth on our portfolio more than 3% in terms of most important for a segment, the growth of healthcare-related insurance, growth of riders, sales of the riders, contracts, both in the group and individual continued insurance products. These are the components that have an impact upon the growth, drive the growth, plus acquisition of new contracts. This is very important for us. So maintaining the largest possible number of risk in our portfolio.

On the side of individual insurance products, the growth of the protection insurance portfolio, 11% year-over-year growth rate, strong sales of life insurance and endowment products with guaranteed sum of insurance, both those in developing the in-house channels, as well as the banking channel, taking into account the volumes and all of that under the pressure of in unit-linked investment type insurance products, we offer both in our in-house channel as well as in the bank channels. On the product side, once again, we are drawing your attention to the in protection and unit-linked insurance products with a higher rate of return. This is the time now where we taking advantage of opportunities due to the availability of instrument, instruments that are characterized by higher yields.

We are able to develop, to prepare, create products that are a very attractive alternative for instance, for the savings products offered via the banking channels. In terms of the health product activities, we are already discussed the revenue. The most important thing is that we are observing during this period, very strong growth in terms of the insurance products, more than 35% growth rate, the increase of scale measured by the number of contract, active contracts, active agreements. At this point, more than 3,370,000 contracts, the growth rate of coverage and the availability of PZU at our in-house outlets, the growth in terms of the number of specialties available, medical specialties available at each outlet, at each center on the revenue side, is a very important thing.

We want to create, and that's our policy, is to create the largest possible network of our in-house, our own centers, our own outlets. So we believe that this has an impact, not only on the quality of our offering, but also on the average cost of the medical procedure, which from the point of view of, medical inflation rate, that we observe on the market, is especially important for us. Even more so, we are happy to see that the interest, the fraction of the percentage of, online appointments via remote channels, moje PZU, the stable share of, over telemedicine consultations, which again, has an impact upon the availability, access, and allows us to maintain, to control the cost, maintain the cost at a relatively acceptable level. Access under management, we already discussed it.

Let me just remind you, very strong growth rate, both in terms of the new sales and the valuation of the portfolio. The increase of assets under PPK at the end of Q2 is PLN 3.5 billion. In terms of the product offering in the banking channel, the growth rate, growth of the sales as part of a corporation with banks that are part of our group, almost 70% year-over-year. This is, of course, we do realize that this is partly the base, low base effect. The written premium in total with all the banks, not only for intragroup, is growing at the rate of more than 50%. Now, the time has come to sum up the earnings, financial results. We already spoke a lot about revenue.

Let me remind you, this is a very strong growth rate, and here, a few words, a few comments. The gross revenue from insurance versus the written premium. Quite often, we can see your comments saying the following: "PZU Group with a lower growth rate of the written premium." Quite often, a lot of people, a lot of us, people that follow the earnings of our group, are still operating under the old standard. At the same time, the group has surprised by the strong growth rate of the earned premium. Why, where's the difference come from? Well, one cannot live without the other. You cannot have high premium and selling less.

Let me draw attention to that fact, and let me draw attention to the fact that this situation, which we often mentioned, is a derivative or the outcome of the long contracts, long agreements, especially under the corporate portfolio, as part of a corporate portfolio. We are acquiring, but they are characterized in an extreme case by the fact that they don't, not only they are appearing in the quarter-over-quarter, but not also year-over-year comparisons. If it just happens so, but the day, maturity days, the eighteen months, for instance, skips, misses the entire calendar year. Let me draw attention to the fact, because this appears in many comments.

Continuing the gross revenue from insurance growth, PLN 555 million, that we already mentioned, mainly in the property insurance, non-life insurance, including the Polish subsidiaries, PLN 370 million, the foreign market, PLN 85 million. On the side of life insurance products, these are growth rates, growth of about PLN 103 million in terms of growth year-over-year. What is makes us happy is the fact that the large growth year-over-year is also continued quarter-over-quarter. However, from the quarterly growth, Q1 versus Q2 versus Q1 of this year, first of all, the property portfolios, non-life portfolio, both on this market as the foreign markets, where the growth rate is almost 6%. Net revenue from insurance, we are talking here about the reinsurance component already.

As you can see, the growth rate a bit lower, which is related to the fact, what I already mentioned, the growing portfolio of large corporate agreements, large contracts, or change is a slow change, but still already visible for some time, for a long period of time, the change of the structure of the portfolio on the non-life insurance. Talking about the motor and non-motor insurance products, this is a very good piece of information, a very good direction of this change. Additionally, this year, additional coverage related to the disasters, to catastrophes, which had an impact upon the revenue from the reinsurer shares of the reinsurance premium, which is definitely justified, taking into account the sudden climate changes. A lot is being talked about that.

We want the best possible way, in the best possible way, we want to protect ourselves against the consequences of very sudden and very strong phenomena that have, are very massive in nature. In terms of the claims and the net benefits, the growth, first of all, caused by the cost of the claims in the mass insurance products. We are talking mainly about the scale of the portfolio here. At the same time, and this is a very important piece of information, smaller creation of, loss component, both year-over-year and quarter-over-quarter, which demonstrates that in case of a higher more depreciation than creation rate, we are talking about the improvement of the quality of the possibility of the portfolio, which is particularly important and visible in the mass motor insurance products. The administrative expenses are going up.

We can see the strong inflation rate on the cost side. However, in the second quarter of this year, we recognized the inflation of the wages of the compensation of PZU employees were covered by the programs of compensation hikes based on inflation rates. So in Q2, we recognized the effect of Q1 because this was the campaign that took place in Q2, including the compensation payment for Q1. So Q2 is charged, is burdened with this effect in a bigger way. But of course, it's not the only element of growth of costs. We are also growing in terms of a higher IT cost, both in terms of development, expansion, maintenance, indexing of the contracts, maintenance of the real estate assets, indexing of rent costs.

These were the components that had important factors that contribute, had a major contribution to the increase of the cost. As far as the increase of the cost of integration side, these are the results from the scale. But the other hand, on the other hand, the saturation in terms of the products that are characterized by the higher distribution costs. So first of all, the non-motor products, also the motor products, but in third-party channels, multi-channel, dealer, broker, these are the areas where we observed increases in Q2.

In terms of net financial revenue, let me remind you that in this, under this item, we are presenting the surplus flow, placement operations, placement activities, which is generated on those portfolios that are collateral, that protect the liabilities, insurance claim liabilities, above the financial cost, which is the flow, the cost of money over time. This is the place where we recognize the discount, discounting effect. All the cash flows in the incomes in that discounted, therefore, so a change or shift over time leads to the need to release this discount. What's very important is that the main portfolio should be able to cover with the appropriate surplus those financial costs. This is what's happening in this case.

Therefore, thanks to also this element, we are able to close Q2 with the operating result in the amount of PLN 1.417 billion, with a net profit attributed to the owners of a parent company, including the banking segment, in at the level of PLN 1.039 billion. This is more than a 30% growth rate year-over-year. I think, again, the high contribution of banking segment, we are closing the quarter of PLN 1.454 billion. A very strong growth rate year-over-year, quarter-over-quarter, that lead to the very strong high profitability rate in terms of equity, return on equity. A few words about the earnings of individual segments.

In terms of non-life insurance mass segment, we already discussed a very strong growth rate of revenue, more almost 8% in terms of the mass segment, mainly MOD, non-motor to motor, give a growth rate of 5.7%. Once again, let me repeat, along with the growing MOD to TPL ratio, which is and was particularly visible on the cost of insurance service, is the decline of in the loss component creation versus the amortization. The loss component from the previous periods and the positive effect of that in the total amount of PLN 68 million in Q2, which has an impact upon the operating result. Slight adjustment in terms of the absolute values, PLN 504 million.

In terms of deterioration of the result on the insurance services, this is the deterioration mainly in the non-motor segment, due to the slightly higher year-over-year number of claims of a mass nature, slightly higher. That's why this correction is small. When we look at the improvement of the TPL segment, along with the simultaneous decline of the result generated by the MOD segment. Whereas, the contribution of the entire motor line at a similar level year-over-year. In terms of the corporate segment, here, very strong growth rates. Here, we can really see what we already discussed during this presentation, the 18% growth rate, almost 25% growth rate in the non-motor product, products, with the growing allocation of the reinsurance premiums. This is what you can see very well on these charts.

Taking into account a relatively stable cost of insurance services leads to a situation where the operating result is going up year-over-year in this segment by more than 40%. From the point of view of group and individually continued insurance products, we already discussed a higher release of Contractual Service Margin, CSM, as a result of the positive impact of everything that comes from our experience, and most probably, this is how it's gonna stay in the future. The departure from this pandemic period, today's fatality rates are at a slightly lower level than in the period before the pandemic, so the 2017-2019 timeframe. Let's put it this way, the question is, to what extent this is a transitional period, which carries any cumulative effects that we already observed over the last two years.

But of course, it has an impact, as I already mentioned, upon the higher release of the Contractual Service Margin, and of course, on the higher, on the allocation of a higher part or portion of the revenue to cover the cost of both the claims and benefits, as well as the administrative overhead costs, overhead expenses, as a result of increase of the, personnel costs, wages costs, cost of distribution, in terms of indirect costs, mainly on the side of the cost of, handling of insurance, policies. The costs are relatively flat year-over-year, but Q2 is characterized by, similar in terms of absolute amounts, levels, which has a natural implication, the increase of the operating result. The margin of this, result, almost 24%.

In terms of the individual protection insurance policies, products, similar as the case of the group, products, a higher release, bigger release of the Contractual Service Margin as a consequence of everything that we've been observing in terms of, the growth of or development of claims. The claims mainly based on the fatality rates, fatality rates that are declining. It's all being adjusted slightly. We'll show it on a separate chart by the medical risks. That's why it's so important from the point of view of PZU, the parameter, is to keep the medical inflation at the lowest possible level. In terms of the cost of the insurance services, here as you can see, a similar growth rate as in case of revenue, which allows us to generate slightly higher operating results in this segment, the growth rate of more than 16%.

A very important piece of information regarding what is happening to the Contractual Service Margin, CSM, namely, the margin that will be by PZU left as of the balance sheet as of June 30th this year, or has been retained as of the balance sheet date of March 31st this year, was recognized and allocated to the corresponding period. These are the values that could be treated, could be regarded as a future profit that will be realized during as the individual insurance contracts, individual segments progress. In terms of the group and individually continued insurance policies, increase of the margin up to PLN 7.267 billion, where CSM from the new business is PLN 237 million. Additionally, upselling of the new contracts rider is increasing the future profits shown in this segment.

Change of assumptions and variances in the amount of PLN 35 million. Accrued interest, let me remind you, we are talking about the discounted cash flow, PLN 80 million. The release of Contractual Service Margin, CSM, into the income statement for the current period, PLN 306 million. Similar reasons of changes in terms of individual insurance products. Here, the increase up to PLN 1,015 billion from PLN 81 million at the end of Q1. The profitability rate of individual segments by operating segments, let me draw attention to the continued low COR combined operating ratio in terms regarding the TPL insurance products, or even the slight improvement on the mass, and even stronger improvement on the corporate side, slightly adjusted by what is happening in the MOD portfolio. We discussed that.

Comparing quarter-over-quarter shows a slight deterioration, but of a very low COR, combined operating ratio. We are finishing the quarter at the level of 87.9%. In terms of, the life business, both individual as well as the, from the point of view of the group, individual continued very high margins in terms of, Baltic countries. Again, very solid growth rates. However, still, this is not the scale yet, which could be, comparable to the, to the non-life, insurance segment on the Polish market, but a solid, decent growth rate, more than 20% from-- with very good profitability rates.

In terms of the pandemics and versus claims in life insurance products, as I mentioned, we are in a situation where year-over-year, the number of deaths, measured quarter-by-quarter, dropped below 90,000, down from 105,000 this time, and 130,000 during this period. During the period of most negative in terms of the impact on the accounts of the life insurance companies. Therefore, this is a situation where we are dealing most likely on a transitory basis, which is the result of a net cumulative effect of a negative occurrences in over recent two years. But as we showed before, quite big additional claims, COVID-related claims. So today, we are beneficiary of this reversal of the trend or maybe new distribution, that will be visible for some time.

In terms of, in terms of the claims, as you can see, the group and really continued, segment, for that very reason, is reporting 5% lower percentage points, claim ratios, which is the consequence of, following developments. On the death side, the impact on this, ratio is 4.6. It is under the influence, under pressure from the healthcare products. In terms of the other risks, we are talking about such things as the giving, birth to a child, assistance, ADD, permanent disability, permanent damage, also a positive, a positive impact upon the claims ratio year-over-year. In terms of investment result from the main portfolio, very strong growth. The increase of, results, earnings generated by the main portfolio by more than 17% versus Q2 last year.

Very strong impact, the growth on the side of, of interest income, we already mentioned that. Very good performance of, real estate portfolio, both in terms of, increase of, rents, rent rates, as well as the revenue from the FX hedging instruments. What makes us particularly happy is the fact that in terms of, acquisitions purchases that we, carried out in this first half of the year to the bond portfolios and the portfolios kept until maturity. We are able to improve, weighted average profitability rate, thanks to the higher operating cash flows that were feeding the main portfolio. Today, the main portfolio is PLN 47 billion, and thanks to that, we were able to making these new acquisitions, new purchases of tranches, tranches of instruments at higher valuations.

We are able to raise the weighted average, possibly by almost 20 basis points, and freeze it, lock it, for the subsequent periods. So a very good piece of information. A high level of the group's solvency, we already discussed that. We are growing in terms of our in-house funds, not growing, the same, at the same, rate in terms of, solvency requirement. In terms of, respect of, implementation of, strategic goals, the gross revenue from insurance, when we recalibrate our strategy, we set ourselves a very ambitious goal in topping PLN 28 billion in terms of a gross insurance revenue, different than the written premium. There is no 18-month element, factor, or any other random factor. It's a systematic increase of, scale. We do believe that this KPI is still within our reach.

We do believe that this year, the market, also in the second half of the year, will continue to grow, and the increase, the growth rate in the market will top 10% in terms of the non-life insurance market. On the healthcare pillar side, consequent growth rate on a good way to this PLN 1.7 billion strategic goal, the high solvency and the high contribution of the banks, that leads to the above average earnings of a group of first half of this year. And very strong, rate on equity, both ROE and adjusted ROE, that eliminates, strips out the effects of, liabilities in terms of the oscillations of actuations of, discounting rates. Ladies and gentlemen, that's all in terms of the summary of the earnings.

Let me be frank, it took me a bit longer than I expected, and this is probably the time when if you had any questions to the presentation, to our report, to what is being happening in PZU Group. So I'd like to very warmly all invite you to ask your questions now, especially taking into the fact that today we've been visited by a quite large group of visitors here on site, physically, so we are very happy to see them. Welcome, and now is the time for the segment of questions- and- answers.

Andrzej Powierża
Equity Research Analyst, Citigroup

Knock, knock. Good afternoon, Andrzej Powierża , the brokerage office of Citi Handlowy. My question would be for the investment result outlook for the subsequent quarters or years, with the consensus that gradually, the interest rates will be declining in Poland, and how should one look at this result or these earnings in the future? What should be the outlook?

Tomasz Kulik
CFO, PZU

Well, in terms of the main portfolio, as I already mentioned, this is PLN 48 billion, out of which the bonds portfolio, treasury bonds portfolio, amortized cost is PLN 23 billion. Therefore, almost half of our portfolio will be the beneficiary of ev... has happened before. Therefore, quite a strong, quite a high blended yield. I am mentioning this because it's a resultant of all those tranches that are historic. They were also purchased during the downturn period, where the interest rates were quite shallow.

And now, taking into account the liquidity surpluses and o perating cash flow, we're able to supplement it and improve this yield, the profitability by about 20 basis points. So on one hand, this is one thing. I do not know if I want to use here the amount, quote, the amount, what can expect in absolute terms, because the devil's in the details, and although there is a consensus that the interest rates will be getting normalized, so most probably taking into account all the factors, one should expect they will be declining.

However, I'm saying the devil's in the details because here, the biggest unknown is the rate, the rate of this deceleration of a decline of interest rates. On one hand, it'll be definitely what is our, and will be our frozen or locked up profitability in terms of treasury bonds. We'll, we'll be keeping them until maturity.

As far as enough significant area of growth is the fact that we assume that in spite of declines that will be taking place, we will continue to maintain in a proper manner a shield related to the corporate debt. Today, again, we are a beneficiary of these high interest rates, and definitely in spite of the fact that this trend will reverse, we are talking about 17% share of our portfolio. Still, all the time, this situation will continue like that. In terms of real estate, here, we are of the opinion that all the time there is a potential, there's a room for growth. For now, it's less than 10%. That's the share of real estate portfolio. We want to expand this portfolio in a very responsible manner.

Therefore, as you can see, it is not some crazy policy or creating or developing something strange. We want to rotate this portfolio faster and be a beneficiary, or possibly to a larger degree of developers' margins that will allow us to increase the weighted average profitability rate of this portfolio. From the point of view of equity instruments, the majority of this portfolio, except for some transitory short-term fluctuations, here, I'm referring to our non-standard, I would call them, exposures in this portfolio. Mainly, these are the portfolios built based on private equity, on a very low individual exposures built in a consistent manner, and therefore, this portfolio is more than PLN 1 billion. We're contributing on a seasonal basis. This portfolio is related, of course, to the equity markets and reflects to a certain degree the sentiment on the equities market.

Depending on what is gonna happen, what's gonna be happening, this is potentially... This area, we're taking into account the strategic as well as tactical allocation of the assets, so we can try to saturate this portfolio to a large extent. I'm not saying this is gonna happen. It all depends upon what is happening on the market, but definitely, we will not be doing anything here, things that I'm looking for a good word to, controversial, I would say. We are an insurance company.

It's investment operations, investment, investing activity is quite visible very well in this chart to a much larger degree, is dedicated to the insurance needs than due to the fact that it's being carried out with a higher, with a higher degree of aggressiveness or higher graded appetite for risk, would allow to have an impact upon a large growth on the surplus portion. This is not the case, and this is a very good chart that demonstrates that. But taking this into account, taking into the fact that we are an insurance company, we want to grow because of our scale, trying over the longest possible timeframe, thinking about the expected interest rate declines, we want to continue to maintain the today achieved profitability rates. This is the time when, I guess... Yes, this is the time. Okay. And not too many.

Now, we have reached for the questions asked on our website. What level of a benchmark NBP rate, prime rate, you assume to at the end of 2023, beginning of 2024? I'm thinking how to answer this question and whether it's a question to me. I think it's a question to the National Bank of Poland. Let me answer this way, because this is the question, how do you estimate whether NBP will be right or wrong? That's how I read, I'm reading it. I think it's best to direct this question to our colleagues from the National Bank of Poland. I think it would not be very nice from my side to replace them in this answer or sub in for them in answering this question, so I will not be doing that.

Okay, so I understand that our more and more informative presentation, but not only we deliver more information on the same topic, but in a greater number of dimension, and under the old dimensions, new dimension, based on new segment. Therefore, there's a lot of information, a lot of information about the new quality of new quality. I assume that any hunger for information we managed to satisfy. So this is the time when I'd like to thank you very much for today, and I would like to invite you also to us, to visit us physically on-site, for the conference that will be summing up the earnings for Q3. I'd like to thank you very much. See you next time. Thank you.

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