Amid Stock Rout, Munich Re Bolsters Islamic Reinsurance with New Appointment
01.06.2026 - 11:21:55 | boerse-global.de
Munich Re has placed a strategic bet on its niche sharia-compliant reinsurance arm, tapping Kevin Rethual to lead the unit just as the company’s shares hit a 52-week low. The appointment signals a continued push into higher-margin specialist markets even as broader investor sentiment sours on the reinsurance sector.
Rethual took the helm at Munich Re Retakaful on 1 June, based in Kuala Lumpur and reporting to Owais Ansari, head of regional market reinsurance for the Middle East and Africa at Munich Re. An insider familiar with the unit’s pricing and commercial operations — he joined in 2021 as head of pricing and was promoted to chief commercial officer in 2024 — Rethual previously spent over a decade at Sun Life Malaysia. He replaces Serena Thio, who the company says strengthened the unit’s technical credibility and market position before moving into an advisory role and departing at year-end.
The choice of timing is notable. Munich Re’s stock closed last Friday at €452.80, the lowest level in a year, and has now shed 25% from its 52-week high of €605. The shares fell 14.44% in May alone, the worst performance in the DAX, and are trading 15% below the 200-day moving average. On Monday the stock slipped further to €448.30, down 0.99%, bringing its year-to-date decline to 18.34%.
The rout has been driven by a cocktail of profit-taking, pricing uncertainty and rising concern over large-loss exposure. At the April renewal season, Munich Re’s written premium volume dropped 18.5% to €2.0 billion as the group walked away from business where terms didn’t meet its thresholds. Risk-adjusted prices slipped an average of 3.1%, though the group insists the overall portfolio quality held up.
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None of that weakness shows up in the operational numbers. For the first quarter of 2026, Munich Re posted net profit of €1.714 billion, up more than 56% from a year earlier, while operating earnings reached €2.2 billion. The combined ratio in property-casualty reinsurance improved to 66.8%, helped by a large-loss burden of just €130 million. The solvency ratio stood at 292%, well above the 200% target.
That disconnect — record earnings and a falling share price — has prompted the board to step in. Munich Re is running a buyback programme of up to €2.25 billion, with a first tranche of €900 million that began in mid-May and is expected to continue into August. The message from management is clear: they consider the stock undervalued.
Chief financial officer Andrew Buchanan recently addressed the Goldman Sachs European Financials Conference in Zurich, where investors were listening for any signal that pricing trends might stabilise. The next big test for the stock will come with the half-year results on 7 August, followed by a third-quarter update on 12 November.
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Meanwhile, Munich Re Retakaful continues to operate from its long-standing hub in Kuala Lumpur, licensed since December 2007 by Bank Negara Malaysia as a full-fledged retakaful operator. The unit covers general and family (life and health) retakaful business, adhering to AAOIFI standards on a pure Wakalah model. Its entire supply chain is 100% sharia-compliant, with no conventional retrocession or business from conventional insurers allowed.
The appointment of Rethual fits neatly into Munich Re’s “Ambition 2030” strategy of pushing deeper into high-margin specialty markets across Asia. Islamic reinsurance offers a gateway to fast-growing markets in Southeast Asia and the Middle East where sharia-compliant financial products are gaining structural traction. Whether the capital market will eventually reward that long view remains an open question.
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