Munich Re is exposed to €2.4bn of Irish bonds
Munich Re is exposed to €2.4bn (£2bn) of Irish government bonds – around 1.2 per cent of its total non-linked assets (see chart above).
However, exposure to the Irish crisis is not as bad as some feared, according to data from Nomura.
Munich Re’s exposure is double the next most exposed insurer, ZFS, which has 0.6 per cent of its non-linked assets, or €1.2bn, in Irish sovereign debt.
Generali is third with 0.5 per cent of non-linked assets, or €1.8bn exposed. However, Generali is by far the most exposed to sovereign debt across all five crisis hit peripheral Eurozone countries – Portugal, Ireland, Italy, Greece and Spain.
It has a total of €56.3bn sunk into sovereign debt, with €44.4bn in Italy alone. Axa has the second largest overall exposure to the five countries with €30.1bn. Munich Re has a total of €12bn. Reception to the Irish bailout package was muted in bond markets, with little movement. However, insurers performed well, with Prudential putting on 14p to 591p and Aviva adding 8.1p to 377.8p.