Generali beats first-half forecasts, launches €500 million share buyback

MILAN, Aug 6 (Reuters) - Italy's top insurer Generali beat estimates with its first-half results on Thursday thanks to the contribution of all of its businesses and said it would start a new €500-million tranche of its share buyback programme next week.   

The insurer finds itself caught up in the broader takeover tussle in the Italian financial sector as the country's biggest bank Intesa Sanpaolo seeks to buy rival Banca Monte dei Paschi (MPS), which holds a 13% stake in Generali through its subsidiary Mediobanca.

The operating result, the figure most closely watched by the market, rose 11.2% to €4.5 billion ($5.2 billion), beating a company-provided consensus forecast of €4.38 billion.

The adjusted net profit came in at €2.54 billion, up 13.7% from a year ago and above an analyst consensus of €2.41 billion.

The non-life business was hit harder by natural catastrophes, with its undiscounted combined ratio - an insurance industry measure of underwriting profitability - worsening by 0.7 percentage points to 93.8%. Still, the segment's operating profit rose 4.7% to €2.14 billion.

Life net inflows exceeded €8.3 billion, a record figure for a first half, the company said in a statement.

($1 = 0.8678 euros)

(Reporting by Gianluca Semeraro, editing by Keith Weir)