Hannover Re targets LatAm and European growth

Hannover Re has ringfenced Latin America and Europe as key growth geographies for the German reinsurance group, identifying a “substantive protection gap” around climate linked natural catastrophes.

This was according to Thorsten Steinmann, executive board member at Hannover Re, who addressed the trade press at a briefing event held on 7 September 2026 as part of Monte Carlo’s Rendez-Vous de September (RVS) event.

Although already operational across Latin America and Europe, Steinmann confirmed that Hannover Re has appetite to expand its presence and reach in both continents as changing climate dynamics continue to influence natural catastrophe losses.

For him, Latin America in particular has a “substantive protection gap between the economic loss and the insured losses” – which he views as the “largest commercial opportunity for us as an industry”.

He explained: “We saw wildfires in Chile early in the year. We saw volcanic eruption in Guatemala. We saw severe earthquakes in Venezuela, but also in Colombia. And while some of these events generated only limited insured losses, other resulted in considerable human and economic impacts.

“What these events clearly demonstrate is the importance of effective insurance and reinsurance protection. But they also highlight the substantive protection gap that we see, in particular in this region, [around] the difference between the economic loss and the insured losses.

“Closing [this] protection gap is probably the largest commercial opportunity for us as an industry, but it’s also a societal imperative as greater insurance penetration strengthens resilience, accelerates recovery after disasters and supports sustainable economic development.

“This is why we believe the Latin American region offers significant long-term potential. Economic growth, urbanisation, infrastructure investments and increasing awareness of risk are driving demand for insurance solutions.

“When it comes to our appetite, Latin America remains a growth market for us for Hannover Re, despite the recent loss activity.”

Another geography Hannover Re has its eye on is its home region of Europe, Steinmann confirmed, due to the reinsurer continuing “to see strong demand for high quality reinsurance protection”.

He told attendees: “When it comes to our risk appetite for European exposure, we will continue to grow in Europe. That’s the plan. Offer our client solutions where [they are] most needed and, at the same time, we do expect that terms and conditions continue to be adequate [into] 2027.

“Although the competitive pressure has clearly increased over previous years, [the European reinsurance market] remains fundamentally healthy and stable. We could really gain market share in this in this region over time.”

Agriculture opportunity

Steinmann observed that underpinning growth opportunities in these regions was increased “climate related exposures”.

He said: “We see losses everywhere. We see heatwaves. We see wildfires. We see severe convective storms. We see hail events and we also see some flooding and flash flooding in Europe – they are becoming more frequent and more costly.

“Those events just remind us that climate related exposures are not a future concern, but a current reality for insurers and reinsurers – and I would say also for society in general.”

This trend has helped Hannover Re not only identify growth geographies, but also industry sectors and product lines it wants to do more in.

For example, Steinmann highlighted agriculture as a sector heavily impacted by changing weather patterns – in turn presenting an important opportunity for the reinsurer.

He said: “We’ve seen dry summers in Germany, Austria and Switzerland, which lead to lower grain yields. We have seen drought in England, which causes problems in respect of irrigation and animal feed. The wine grapes in Italy are impacted by hail losses. And the impact of a very strong El Niño will also cause losses in the agriculture sector.

“As weather patterns become less predictable, the need for risk transfer mechanisms grows and this is simply the reason why the agriculture line of business, from our perspective, is a growing line of business.

“We want to take a fair share in this growth as reinsurance plays a critical role in helping insurers to continue providing protection for farmers and agriculture businesses in general.”

Aiming for ‘profitable growth’

Away from climate linked classes, Sven Althoff – executive board member for property and casualty at Hannover Re – pinpointed credit and surety as another area of possible growth for the reinsurer based on “strong demand” arising from “the geopolitical and global trade risk landscape”.

He noted: “The geopolitical and global trade risk landscape is an important driver of exposure and potential losses. So, we have a heightened risk profile for both products, [but] this is also creating opportunities in the sense that there is strong demand for credit and surety products.

“We can continuously grow in this line of business at a pricing level which is still comfortably risk adequate.”

Clemens Jungsthöfel, chief executive at Hannover Re, added: “We do continue to see attractive opportunities for profitable growth in the market. Our underwriting approach, though, does remain unchanged.

“We are ready to provide capacity where pricing and terms and conditions adequately reflect the underlying risk. We will deploy our capital, therefore, where it creates value for our clients, where it helps to solve real problems and where it contributes to long-term partnerships with our clients.”