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By Mathieu Rosemain
PARIS (Reuters) -AXA, Europe's second-biggest insurance company, posted nine-month sales that met analyst expectations on Thursday, driven by higher premiums at its property and casualty division.
Sales in the period from January to September were up 2% on a comparable basis to 78.8 billion euros ($83.72 billion), AXA said in a statement, close to the 79 billion-euro analyst consensus compiled by the company.
Group revenues benefited from a 7% hike on a comparable basis of the property and casualty (P&C) division, which includes insurance for personal property such as cars and homes as well as liability.
P&C policies for companies, AXA's largest business, were up 9%, it said.
The performance at AXA's P&C unit helped offset a fall of 2% on comparable basis of its Life & Health unit, dragged down by the loss of "two large legacy international group (health-related) contracts in France," it said.
AXA's Solvency II ratio, a key measure for its financial health, was down by 5 percentage points from the end of June to 230%, slightly below the analyst consensus of 231%, as the company repaid 1 billion euros worth of debt.
The French insurer confirmed it was on track to deliver on its full-year target of more than 7.5 billion euros in underlying earnings for 2023. The company will present its next strategic plan on March 11 of next year.
($1 = 0.9413 euros)