Allianz completes €2.5 billion share buyback on September 22, ahead of schedule
Key Facts
Allianz said its €2.5 billion share buyback program for 2026 was completed on September 22, ahead of the December 31 deadline set by the company. The company said purchases took place between March 13 and September 22, repurchasing treasury shares to the program’s stated value. The announcement comes as the group reported growth in operating profit during the first nine months of the year. Operating profit reached €14.1 billion, up 7.8% year on year, compared with €13.1 billion in the same period of 2025. The results also showed quarterly performance above the average of analysts’ estimates, while Allianz raised the upper end of its annual operating profit forecast.
Early completion of the program represents a return of capital to shareholders through share buybacks, while Allianz canceled the shares purchased in a separate step. The company said the number of shares issued fell, as of November 4, from 380,418,897 to 374,170,936 after the shares covered by the program were canceled. The move reduces the number of shares outstanding and places completion of the buyback in the context of the group’s capital management. Allianz had announced in February that the latest date for completing the program was December 31, 2026. But purchases ended on September 22, more than three months ahead of that deadline. The company statement did not identify a single reason for ending the program early.
At the results level, third-quarter operating profit rose 6.2% to €4.7 billion, compared with €4.4 billion in the same period last year. The quarterly figure was €4.71 billion, exceeding the average analyst estimate of €4.30 billion, according to estimates compiled by Allianz and cited in Reuters coverage. The company attributed profit growth to the diversity of its businesses, with contributions from asset management and strong performance in life and health. Property and casualty, meanwhile, remained resilient despite a greater impact from natural catastrophes. The comparison shows that operating profit growth came alongside differing performance across the group’s businesses, rather than at the same pace in every segment.
Asset management stood out as one of the quarter’s drivers, recording €47 billion in net third-party inflows. Assets under management for third parties totaled €2.152 trillion on September 30, compared with €1.928 trillion a year earlier. At the group level, total business volume for the first nine months reached €143.0 billion, compared with €141.2 billion in the same period of 2025, with internal growth of 3.8%. Net income attributable to shareholders, however, declined in the third quarter, coming in at €2.784 billion, down 2.2% from €2.847 billion a year earlier. These indicators show the different trajectories of operating profit and net income during the quarter.
In property and casualty, the combined ratio—the ratio of expenses and claims to premiums—rose to 93.8% in the third quarter from 91.9% a year earlier. Allianz said the increase was mainly linked to a greater impact from natural catastrophes, which reached 5.1% compared with 0.3% in the corresponding quarter of 2025. Despite this impact, the company described the segment’s performance as resilient within the group’s quarterly result. On solvency, the Solvency 2 ratio stood at 219% on September 30, compared with 218% at the end of 2025. The ratio provides an indicator of insurance capital strength alongside execution of the program and the release of results.
Allianz raised the upper end of its 2026 operating profit forecast to around €18.6 billion, Reuters reported, compared with previous guidance of €17.4 billion, plus or minus €1 billion. The revision sets a higher ceiling than the range the company had previously announced, following the first-nine-month and third-quarter results. The company’s stock, traded under the ticker ALIZY, closed at $52.04 on November 12, according to EL7 data. Allianz is scheduled to publish its fourth-quarter and full-year 2026 results on February 24, 2027. That will be the next milestone for assessing full-year performance against the updated forecast.