The Group’s operating result, equal to € 4,857 million, showed 3.0% increase (€ 4,713 million at 31 December 20173), reflecting the positive trend of all segments. Operating Return on Equity amounted to 12.6% at 31 December 2018 (-0.2 pps), reflecting the impact of the accounting method for divestment according to IFRS 54.
The average operating Return on Equity for the 2015-2018 period stood at 13.4%, confirming the achievement of the strategic objective (>13%).
Total operating result by segment
| (€ million) | 31/12/2018 | 31/12/2017 | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Total operating result | 4,857 | 4,713 | 3.0% |
| Life | 3,067 | 2,982 | 2.8% |
| Property&Casualty | 1,992 | 1,944 | 28.2% |
| Asset Management | 335 | 261 | n,s, |
| Holding and other business | -70 | -163 | 0 |
| Consolidation adjustments | -467 | -311 | 50.0% |
In particular, the Life operating result, equal to € 3,067 million, grew by 2.8% thanks to the trend of technical margin net of insurance operating expenses. The investment result was down due to the higher impairments on financial instruments, especially posted in the last quarter of the year.
The P&C operating result, equal to € 1,992 million, increased by 2.5%, reflecting the contribution from investment result, albeit in the context of a persistently low level of interest rates, and other operating components. The combined ratio stood at 93.0% (92.9% at 31 December 2017), confirming its position amongst our peers, in line with the Group’s strategic technical excellence directive.
The Asset Management segment, introduced starting from 31 December 2018 to better reflect the results of the Group’s asset manager activities in line with the strategic communication to the market , achieved an operating result of € 335 million thanks to the increase in revenues arising from portfolio management activities.
The improvement in the Holding and other businesses operating result reflected the positive result of other private equity and real estate activities.
Finally, the change in the consolidation adjustments was mainly due to higher dividends and intra-group realized gains.
Operating result by country
| (€ million) | 31/12/2018 | 31/12/2017 |
| Italy | 1,801 | 1,841 |
| France | 703 | 744 |
| Germany | 821 | 750 |
| Austria, CEE & Russia | 776 | 744 |
| International | 814 | 731 |
| Spain | 294 | 289 |
| Switzerland | 273 | 258 |
| Americas and Southern Europe | 116 | 85 |
| Asia | 79 | 39 |
| Europ Assistance | 86 | 88 |
| Other | -33 | -28 |
| Investments, Asset & Wealth Management (*) | 527 | 468 |
| Group holding, other companies and consolidation adjustments | -585 | -565 |
| Total | 4,857 | 4,713 |
(*) Investments, Asset & Wealth Management area includes the main Group entities operating in investment advisory, asset management and financial planning; it includes, among others, Banca Generali. Adding the operating result of AM of the Central and Eastern European countries to that of Investments, Asset & Wealth Management reported in the table, the total operating amounts to € 542 million (€ 482 million at 31 December 2017).
3 As mentioned above, the 2017 comparative data were reclassified. Please refer to the paragraph Changes in the presentation of the performance indicators of the Group in the Note to the Management Report for further information.
4 The accounting method for divestment according to IFRS 5 reclassifies Operating result from discontinued operations into Result of discontinued operations, effectively reducing the numerator.
5 See the information by segment in the Methodological note on alternative performance indicators.