The company said Thursday that its full-year net profit fell by 46 percent to 2.55 billion euros from 5.2 billion euros in 2010. It said writedowns on Greek government bonds and other investments there cost it 1.9 billion euros.
Greek bonds have fallen steeply due to the country's debt crisis; the country has worked out a deal for creditors to take losses on their investments of 70 percent or more. Allianz said it had written down the value of Greek bonds on its books to around a quarter of their value.
In the fourth quarter, the company's profit more than halved to 492 million ($654 million) from 1.14 billion euros in the same quarter the year before. Analysts had expected a more modest decline to 882.7 million euros.