“The relatively weak net profit is due to several negative one-off effects (such) as negative currency effects, impairments on equities and impairments on Greek government bonds,” DZ analyst Thorsten Wenzel said in a note.

Investment income fell nearly 40 percent in the third quarter. Negative currency effects hit net profit by 342 million euros, while a further writedown on Greek sovereign bond holdings dented net profit by 45 million, the company said.

Munich Re said it has been cutting exposure to bonds from European periphery states and increasing its holdings of bonds from financially strong countries and corporates, as well as those of dynamically developing states.

Schneider said he would not give a concrete profit outlook for the full year because the final result could be influenced until the final day of the year by major losses or capital market and exchange rate volatility.

The company had abandoned its 2.4 billion euro net profit target in March following devastating earthquakes in Japan and New Zealand and flooding in Australia earlier this year.

Quarterly operating profit fell 27 percent to 839 million euros, a steeper decline than analysts had expected.

(Reporting by Jonathan Gould)