Nov. 9 (Bloomberg) -- Allianz SE, Europe's biggest insurer, reported a 21 percent increase in third-quarter profit, beating analysts' estimates, as earnings from its property and casualty unit cushioned losses at its Dresdner Bank unit. Net income rose to 1.92 billion euros ($2.83 billion) from 1.59 billion euros a year earlier, Munich-based Allianz said today in an e-mailed statement. That beat the 1.45 billion-euro median estimate of 18 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg. ``Dresdner has been a millstone around Allianz's neck ever since they bought it,'' said Philipp Musil, who helps oversee about $30 billion, including Allianz shares, at Constantia Privatbank in Vienna. ``Still, Allianz's insurance business is more profitable on an operating level than most of its peers.'' Allianz reported a 52 million-euro loss at its Dresdner unit. Financial companies including American International Group Inc., the world's biggest insurer, had more than $30 billion of writedowns in the quarter after record foreclosures on U.S. home loans to borrowers with poor credit histories roiled debt markets. http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=a_LGRdDjn3cM&refer=home Sorry, to disturb you AAPL, RIMM, GOOG, BIDU admirers...Just want to remind you that there is also a European market...
Allianz? Allianz!? It's boring, how you say........"das sleepy". Germany needs to reestablish its version of the Nasdaq that it had circa 1999 & 2000 before the tech meltdown. Then Europe can get swept up in Goog-fever like the rest of the world.