Coface Warns 2016 Profit Dented by Higher Emerging-Market Claims

(Bloomberg) -- Coface SA, a French export-credit insurer, warned Monday that higher-than-expected claims by companies trading with emerging markets may cut its 2016 annual profit.

The Paris-based company also cited longer collection times in emerging regions, it said in a statement after markets closed Monday, without naming any specific countries. Coface said its net loss ratio will reach 67 percent in the second quarter, and it expects that measure to be between 63 percent and 66 percent for 2016, up from 52.5 percent last year.

Adjusting risk-management policies due to the “greater-than anticipated increase of risk in emerging countries” coincides “with the work currently underway on the strategic plan which will aim to adapt the group's growth strategy and cost structure to this more difficult environment,” Chief Executive Officer Xavier Durand said in the statement.”

Coface had net income of 126 million euros ($140.5 million) in 2015. Every percentage-point decline in its loss ratio cuts annual profit by about 6 million euros, according to filings on Coface's website.

To contact the reporter on this story: Fabio Benedetti-Valentini in Paris at fabiobv@bloomberg.net. To contact the editors responsible for this story: Simone Meier at smeier@bloomberg.net, Keith Campbell, Elisa Martinuzzi