UPDATE 3-Life insurance helps Allianz to strong Q3, stock up
* Q3 operating profit 1.93 bln euros, vs forecast 1.80 bln
* Operating profit in property-casualty falls 18 percent
* Allianz declines to give outlook due to uncertainty
* No acquisitions, no capital increase planned - CFO
* Shares up 5.7 pct; leads DAX, outpacing sector index
(Adds fresh analyst comment, detail, background)
FRANKFURT, Nov 9 (Reuters) - Allianz (ALVG.DE) unveiled forecast-beating quarterly earnings on the back of strong performances in life insurance and asset management, boosting its shares by more than 5.5 percent.
Europe's biggest insurer said it was well positioned to take advantage of improvements in the economy after posting a 23 percent rise in operating profit in the third quarter.
However, it shied away from giving a forecast for 2009 -- even though the year's end is just weeks away -- or for 2010, citing financial market volatility and the risk of big damage claims from winter storms as reasons for prudence.
This circumspection contrasted with French rival AXA (AXAF.PA), Europe's second-biggest insurer, which late last month said the outlook for its business had improved, in spite of slightly weaker than expected quarterly sales. [ID:nLS41223]
Allianz said economic weakness was still hitting demand in the broader insurance market, a trend underscored by a drop in operating profit of nearly a fifth in its main business of property and casualty insurance.
"Property-casualty as well as life insurance face markedly weaker demand due to the economic downturn with rising business insolvencies and rising unemployment," its quarterly report said.
"Prices are moving upward only slowly -- if at all -- and only in specific areas of business," it added.
Analysts said Allianz had delivered a solid set of figures and hailed the insurer's ability to pad its capital cushion in the third quarter. "Allianz is currently one of the best capitalised insurers with a significantly reduced risk profile," WestLB analyst Andreas Schaefer wrote in a note to clients.
"In terms of earnings development, we believe, non-life should have seen the worst in the second quarter 2009 while we regard the life and health results in the second and third quarter as unsustainably good," Schaefer added. Continued...
