Munich, Feb 25 (Reuters) - Munich Re is substantially increasing its dividend and launching the largest share buy-back since the 2007/08 financial crisis.
The Board of Management is proposing a dividend of 24 (2024: 20) euros per share for the past year, as the world's second-largest reinsurer announced on Wednesday. This is 20 percent more than in the previous year and more than two euros more than analysts had expected on average. In addition, treasury shares worth up to 2.25 billion euros are to be repurchased within one year from April 29 and then canceled.
In addition to dividends, share buy-backs are another way of returning surplus capital to shareholders. In this way, Munich Re will distribute a total of around 5.3 billion euros from last year's profit. On average, analysts expect the reinsurer to have generated a profit of 6.21 billion euros last year.
