Allianz says Q3 profits down

German insurance giant Allianz on Wednesday posted third quarter net profits of 1.27 billion euros (1.74 billion dollars), down 8.8 percent from the previous corresponding period.
But the result was better than expected by analysts polled by Dow Jones Newswires who forecast profits of 1.17 billion euros.
Allianz said that it was on course to meet its annual operating profit target of around 7.2 billion euros, while company boss Michael Diekmann added in a statement that "for the first time since 2005, we will probably end the year with sales of more than 100 billion euros."
Operating profit over nine months stood at 6.1 billion euros while sales reached 80.5 billion euros.
For the third quarter operating profit rose 2.3 percent from a year earlier to 2.1 billion euros, better than analyst forecasts of a 0.3 percent drop.