I open one @Testo-Investor and lift weights while I work.

(I have no idea what else to write about the share, as it's a perennial runner and I should @DonkeyInvestor should post more shit)

Good morning to the community.

I would also like to introduce my portfolio and share my thoughts and goals.

First of all, a bit about myself and how I got into trading:

I am 39 years old and have actually NEVER been interested in the stock market/shares. Through a lucky coincidence in the gambling sector, I suddenly had a 5-figure sum in my account. I then went on a kind of overnight interest rate shopping spree. At some point, however, there were no more offers that appealed to me and I ended up with TR call money. At first I didn't want to invest any money in shares or ETFs, but then I decided to take a look. That was in August 2024, when I caught the bug quicker than I would have liked and, thanks to a good friend, I was able to quickly gather some information and recognize the benefits of investing.

I've been invested ever since.

Now to the structure and goals of my portfolio:

The main focus is on an ACWI IMI in order to build up a certain amount of capital through compound interest. I am expecting an investment horizon of 20 - 25 years. The aim is to have built up a certain amount of capital by then so that I can make withdrawals later in and around retirement age and enjoy a good life in retirement without having to worry. The ACWI was the first major building block for diversification. However, I am honest and I was tempted to buy a portfolio with various individual shares. These are mainly dividend-oriented. Most of the positions pay stable dividends and have moderate growth. I deliberately chose many defensive stocks such as $MUV2 (+0,44 %)
$ALV (+0,34 %) or $JNJ (-0,4 %) in my portfolio so as not to be too speculative. Classics like $KO (-0,13 %)
$MCD (-0,48 %)
$PG (+0,74 %) round off the whole thing. I wanted to achieve an inflow of at least €100 per month over the entire year. Currently it's around €2150 for the whole year. I enjoy having a continuous inflow of dividends that I can reinvest freely. I really wanted to take this positive aspect of the investment with me. Accordingly, I also have very strong dividend payers in my portfolio, although they can be quite volatile and operate in a difficult market environment, e.g. $SHEL (+0,57 %)
$PETR4 (+1,65 %) or $MO (-1,25 %) . In December, I invested in shares of $HOT (+0 %) and $HEI (-1,2 %) with the idea that these companies could possibly benefit from the reconstruction of war zones. (I know that's perhaps not the nicest thought and I'm not a friend of wars either, but you have to ignore that when it comes to profits) and the shares of both have done really well for me. That's why I'm also invested in 2 defense ETFs. Another ETF I have in my portfolio is a "tech/software" ETF, AI & Big Data. Individual stocks were too risky for me here and I preferred to take a broadly diversified approach. I also recently added the Germany All Cap to my portfolio, as I think that Germany will be on the rise again in the future. As a small stock with the hope of a real cracker for the future, I have $DEFI (+5,17 %) in the portfolio. Let's see what happens. I'm currently running a savings plan of around 200 euros a month, as I don't have the funds to pump huge amounts of fresh money into my portfolio due to a house loan.

With this in mind, I would be grateful for any tips, suggestions and perhaps also positive words. If you have any questions, please let me know.

Kind regards

Munich Re $MUV2 (+0,44 %) presented its figures for the first quarter of 2025 today and the share price reacted slightly lower.

The company is once again showing its resilience.

In this article, I will organize the current quarterly statement [1], the IR presentation [2] and the earnings call [3], so that the typical "hobby investor" (like me) is also well informed and has a better understanding of Munich Re's business and developments.

📊 Overview Q1 2025

• Group result: €1.094 billion (previous year: €2.115 billion)
• Operating result1.465 billion (previous year: € 2.891 billion)
• Insurance turnover: € 15.8 billion (previous year: € 15.1 billion)
• RoE (return on equity): 13.3% (previous year: 27.2%)

Digression: What does RoE mean and why has it fallen so sharply?

RoE (return on equity) stands for return on equity and measures how efficiently a company manages its shareholders' capital. The higher, the better.

The RoE is particularly important for insurance companies that work with a lot of capital (e.g. for provisions and investments), as it shows how profitably the tied-up capital is actually being used.

At Munich Re, the RoE fell from 27.2% to 13.3% in Q1. This is not due to operational weakness, but primarily to:

• a significantly lower profit (-48% compared to the previous year)
• high losses due to forest fires
• and currency losses of € -506 million

Nevertheless, the capital base remains strong and the RoE should recover once the claims experience normalizes.

Background to the decline in earnings

The sharp fall in earnings is still immediately apparent, and here are the main reasons for this:

Forest fires in Los Angeles:

The biggest negative factor was the devastating forest fires in Los Angeles, which cost Munich Re around €1.1 billion Group-wide.

Update from the call:

"The LA wildfires of €1.1bn altogether, which is a slight decline from the initially announced €1.2bn due to positive effects of a weaker USD and retrocession."

➡️ The net charge was therefore revised slightly downwards.

Currency losses (currency result):

Munich Re was heavily invested in the US dollar through so-called "long positions". As the US dollar depreciated during the quarter, this resulted in a currency loss of -506 million.

"A 10% decline in the USD would result in an approx. 5% decline in net income."

➡️ The impact of the USD loss is therefore not just a one-off, but will also have a structural impact if the weakness continues. Munich Re therefore reduced its long USD position in the course of Q1, but has not yet fully liquidated it.

Operating result halved:

• Especially compared to the strong Q1 2024 (with unusually low losses), the operating result thus fell by almost 50%.

Insights from the call on this:

CFO on earnings quality and operational strength despite decline:

"While our underlying technical profitability continues to be very strong overall, high large losses, fair value changes in the investment result and significant currency movement affected our net earnings."

The message: The decline in earnings is not operationally driven, but results from external volatilities (losses, capital markets, currencies).

This also confirms why Munich Re is sticking to its annual forecast of €6 billion.

Digression for understanding: What does the combined ratio mean and why is it so important?

The combined ratio is a key performance indicator in property and casualty insurance (P&C = Property & Casualty).

It measures the profitability of the insurance business:

Combined ratio = (claims expenditure + administrative costs) / premiums earned

• <100 %: The insurance business is profitable
• >100 %: The company pays out more than it earns

Examples in Q1 2025:

• Reinsurance P&C83.9% -> good despite high claims
• Specialty Insurance: 95.5 % -> close to the break-even point
• ERGO Germany P&C: 88,8 %
• ERGO International P&C: 89,0 %

Business segments

1️⃣ Reinsurance

Munich Re acts as a reinsurer here, they "insure insurance".

Particularly important in areas such as natural catastrophes, life, health and liability.

In the event of major claims, for example, Munich Re helps other insurers such as Allianz or AXA to cover the risk.

Highlights Q1 2025:

• Result853 million (previous year: €1,888 million)
• Turnover10.3 billion €

Property/casualty reinsurance:

Burdened by major losses (€ 1.0 billion), in particular:

• Forest fires in Los Angeles: ~€800 million loss
• Combined ratio83.9 % (target value is ~95 %, i.e. OK)

Life/health reinsurance: Very strong

• Result: 501 million €
• Technical result608 million (above target value)

What is the technical result here?

It measures the pure insurance performance, i.e. how profitable the underwriting is, excluding investment effects. This is particularly important in life/health reinsurance, as long-term contracts dominate here.

Insights from the call on this:

Life & Health reinsurance, explanation of the strong result:

"We benefited from positive experience driven by the U.S. portfolio [...] but we do not consider this to be the new run rate."

The strong technical result (€ 608 million) was due in part to lower mortality, fewer major claims and good contract development in the US. According to management, however, this level cannot be maintained in the long term.

2️⃣ Global Specialty Insurance (GSI)

A newly designated area for specialty insurance, managed by the reinsurance organization. Focus: commercial specialty risks.

• Resultonly € 8 million (previous year: € 163 million)
• Combined ratio: 95.5 % (heavily impacted by LA forest fires)

• Individual loss Los Angeles: ~€200 million

➡️ Result of the forest fires: Only €8m net profit, a sharp decline.

The GSI division was hit hard, mainly due to one-off major losses and the segment change. Without these effects, the company would have been on target according to management.

3️⃣ ERGO acquires Munich Re's direct insurance business

Traditional insurance for end customers, such as motor, household, life and health insurance. Divided into Germany and International.

Q1 2025 at a glance:

• Overall result ERGO241 million (previous year: € 226 million)
• Turnover5.56 billion €

ERGO Germany:

• Result140 million €
• Combined ratio P&C88.8 % (slightly above previous year, but within target range)

ERGO International:

• Result100 million (previous year: € 65 million)
• Strong contributions from Poland, Greece and the Spanish healthcare business

Major losses Q1 2025

• Total losses from natural catastrophes757 million €

Man-made major losses251 million (->

• z. e.g. industrial fires, infrastructure accidents, disasters, everything that is not caused by nature)
• Largest single lossForest fires in Los Angeles (~€1.1 billion across all segments)

This is the most expensive forest fire loss to date for the insurance industry worldwide.

Investment result & financial markets

• Investment result1.32 billion (previous year: € 2.16 billion)
• Main reasonLosses on fixed-interest securities due to higher interest rates
• Return on investment2.2 % (previous year: 3.8 %)
• Currency losses (mainly USD): € -506 million

Share buybacks & dividend

• Munich Re confirms share buy-back program of 2 bn € .. read correctly 2 billion buyback!💰

• Dividend of € 20.00 per share (as already announced for the 2024 annual financial statements)

➡️ How should this be assessed?

The buyback volume is exceptionally high, especially in comparison with other insurers or DAX companies.

It continues to show:

• Capital discipline
• Confidence in its own business model
• Focus on shareholder value
• Repatriation of excess capital in times without takeovers

Despite massive capital returns, the capital base is exceptionally robust.

Munich Re "earned the share buy-back virtually within one quarter", as the CFO put it.

April renewals & market outlook

• New business in reinsurance contracts: +6.1 % volume
• Price level: slightly down (-2.5 %), but risk-adjusted
• Important growth marketsIndia, Latin America, Europe

Risk-adjusted means: Prices were calculated taking into account current claims inflation and risk situation.

A price decline of -2.5 % therefore does not mean that the contracts are cheaper or weaker, but that the premium level has fallen slightly after risk adjustment.

At the same time, the total volume of renewed contracts rose by +6.1%, which is a positive development.

What does "April renewal" actually mean?

In the reinsurance industry, many contracts are renegotiated every year - this is called "renewals".

These do not all take place at the beginning of the year, but are staggered regionally:

• January renewalse.g. Europe, North America
• April renewale.g. Japan, India, parts of Latin America
• July renewale.g. Australia, South Africa, special programs in the USA

The April renewals thus include all reinsurance treaties renewed as at April 1.

Munich Re was able to increase its business volume by +6.1%, despite a slight decline in prices (risk-adjusted: -2.5%).

This shows that Demand remains high and Munich Re can continue to conclude profitable new business.

Strategic development: acquisition of NEXT Insurance

Munich Re has announced the complete takeover of NEXT Insurance via its primary insurance subsidiary ERGO.

The transaction values the US insurtech company at USD 2.6 billion.

NEXT Insurance was founded in 2016 and offers digital insurance for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the USA. With over 600,000 customers and a turnover of USD 548 million in 2024, the company represents a significant addition to the ERGO portfolio.

The integration of NEXT Insurance enables ERGO to directly enter the US SME insurance market, which is considered to be extremely attractive.

The transaction is expected to be completed in the third quarter of 2025 and is expected to contribute hundreds of millions to ERGO's net profit in the medium term.

"We expect earnings uplift from the Next Insurance acquisition in Q3.

"M&A remains on the table - we are monitoring opportunities."

Munich Re expects positive earnings contributions from the NEXT Insurance acquisition in Q3.

The company is also keeping its options open for further acquisitions, particularly in the area of specialty insurance.

🔮 Outlook for 2025

• Annual target: Group profit of € 6 billion is confirmed

Expected:

• Insurance sales: ~€64 billion
• Return on investment: >3%
• Reinsurance: stable margins despite climate risks

🏷️ Conclusion:

Strong basis, high burdens, share price dampened, fundamentals remain robust

Munich Re shows once again:

The business model is resilient.

Despite extreme natural events (LA forest fires) and unfavorable currency effects, the company remains profitable. The life/health segment shines.

What remains: The operating result has halved and comparison with the exceptionally strong Q1 2024 is difficult.

The markets had probably expected more.

With a €20 dividend, a €2 billion share buyback and a stable outlook of €6 billion in annual earnings, Munich Re nevertheless remains a reliable value stock for me with growth in reinsurance and solid risk management.

The position in my portfolio will double within the next few months.

______

$SREN (-0,16 %)
$HNR1 (-0,11 %)
$CS (+0,47 %)
$ALV (+0,34 %)
$ZURN (-0,91 %)

______

Thanks for reading! 🤝

______

Sources:

[1] https://www.munichre.com/content/dam/munichre/mrwebsiteslaunches/2025-q1/MunichRe-Quartalsmitteilung-1-2025_de.pdf/_jcr_content/renditions/original./MunichRe-Quartalsmitteilung-1-2025_de.pdf

[2] https://www.munichre.com/content/dam/munichre/mrwebsiteslaunches/2025-q1/MunichRe-Presentation-IR-Q1-2025_en.pdf/_jcr_content/renditions/original./MunichRe-Presentation-IR-Q1-2025_en.pdf

[3] https://web.quartr.com/link/companies/6425/events/345177/transcript?targetTime=0.0

More:

https://www.reinsurancene.ws/munich-re-acquires-next-insurance-to-become-part-of-ergo/?

While I'm struggling with the terrible controls on an old machine $SIE (+1,21 %) control system, I bought a few shares $UNH (-3,26 %) purchased.

Today I also bought 1× $MUV2 (+0,44 %) 5× $QCOM (+0,73 %) & 10x $QLYS (+1 %)

Greetings from Warsaw 🫡

$ALV (+0,34 %)
$HNR1 (-0,11 %)
$MUV2 (+0,44 %)

$MUV2 (+0,44 %) (Reuters) - The devastating forest fires in and around Los Angeles are costing Munich Re billions. The world's largest reinsurer put the total loss at around 1.1 billion euros on Tuesday, of which 800 million was attributable to the reinsurance division. As a result, net profit in the first quarter almost halved to 1.09 (previous year: 2.12) billion euros, as Munich Re announced. Analysts had expected an average of 1.11 billion euros.

Nevertheless, the Group is sticking to its expectation that profit will rise to around six billion euros in 2025 - "not least thanks to continued good market conditions and the high quality of our portfolio", said CFO Christoph Jurecka. However, prices fell by an average of 2.5 percent in the latest round of renewals in April, in which contracts are renegotiated with primary insurers and brokers.

Nevertheless, Munich Re wrote 6.1 percent more business.

I am still a big fan of Munich Re. The business model is largely crisis-proof, which of course helps against major setbacks and problems in crazy times. In principle, there are no 'goods' that could be subject to any tariffs or similar, nor are there any disrupted supply chains that could lead to the company's own business operations being interrupted. I therefore sleep well with the fact that $MUV2 (+0,44 %) is by far the largest single share in my portfolio at the moment.

It's like a good horse in the stable that's still giving milk 😉😅

Tops

Still at the top 🥇Sprouts Farmers$SFM (-0,22 %) which are stable 📈 followed by 🥈Netflix $NFLX (+1,03 %) which has fought its way up to second place despite all the market turbulence.

Walmart $WMT (+0,86 %) who have always been in the top 3 since I started covering the position.

Unlike the country 🇩🇪 where it feels 📉. Things are looking surprisingly good on the stock market for 🇩🇪 shares $DB1 (+0,26 %) & $MUV2 (+0,44 %) in the top 10 💪😊

Surprisingly, there is no sign of Magnificent 7 far and wide 😂 although $TSLA (+6,03 %) is no longer represented in the "ETF".

Flops

Although Adobe$ADBE (+1,44 %) actually has good figures, the position has not really gotten off the ground since I started holding it, worse still, so far it has brought me the most losses, although it does not pay a dividend 😂

Of course the savings plans are still running this month, but not all positions.

The winners are still running, some of the losers have been paused for the time being and only the flops are still running. $QCOM (+0,73 %)
$AMAT (+1,3 %) continue.

@Esperanza and @Koenigmidas have taken me to #grueneostern and #gruenostern challenge from @InvestmentPapa nominated me. As you know, I hate challenges, Easter and green. But what do you want to do when you get nominated? The law of the internet demands that you make a contribution 😭.

In the current times, however, it's not so easy to find something green. That's why I opted for an all-time overview of my individual stocks. Especially the $MUV2 (+0,44 %) that @Koenigmidas has given me, makes me proud 😍.

I also have two Easter presents for you:

• Finally a screenshot in dark mode. I have a new cell phone and have been too lazy to change over so far
• Absolute values - because all the others are pussies 😘

I nominate @DeineMutter
@Meine
@Mutti
@Tim951995 (I'll give you an egg if you comment on why I nominated it) and @Lumimyrsky

Happy Easter 😘

Hello everyone, I have a question.

I save 500 daily allowance every month for house renovation.

But as interest rates are constantly falling, I'm looking for alternatives but can't make up my mind.

Should I $MUV2 (+0,44 %) or $HNR1 (-0,11 %) take a bond.

Or would I prefer an etf or bonds?

Thanks in advance