* Q3 results due on Nov. 11
* Net profit seen at 440 million euro in Reuters poll
* Axa warned of risks to yr-end profitability
* Allianz seen posting weak Q3 profit
* Generali planning governance overhaul
By Nigel Tutt
MILAN, Nov 9 (Reuters) - Strong life insurance earnings at Generali are seen offsetting continued weakness in the non-life sector and the impact from low interest rates, helping Europe's No.3 insurer to outperform peers in the third quarter.
In results due on Thursday, Italy's largest insurer Assicurazioni Generali SpA is seen posting a quarterly net profit of 440 million euros ($611.7 million), according to the mean average of 13 analysts polled by Reuters, up about 13 percent from a year earlier.
"We expect life earnings to remain resilient, despite the low interest rate environment," Bank of America-Merrill Lynch said in a research note this month.
"Although non-life has been struggling year to date we expect to see some very early signs of improvement in the third quarter," it said.
The third-quarter results should pave the way for Generali to meet its full-year target for an operating profit of between 3.6-4.2 billion euros, analysts said.
Europe's largest insurer, Germany's Allianz, reports on Wednesday and is expected to post a 12 percent decline in net profit in the third quarter.
France's Axa, Europe's second-biggest player, announced a 3.5 percent rise in nine month sales in October but warned a decline in interest rates would hurt year-end profitability.
Generali's life insurance sales have been supported by customers switching into traditional products from unit-linked policies. Non-life, on the other hand, has suffered in the recession as declining European car sales put pressure on the auto insurance segment.
Last week, Generali's Chief Executive Officer Giovanni Perissinotto inched forward in completing corporate governance changes demanded by shareholders after Cesare Geronzi replaced long-standing chairman Antoine Bernheim.
In a step to improve corporate governance at the insurer, Geronzi was made a non-executive chairman, allowing the top management to be in control of business operations and giving the insurer a clearer management structure.
The plan envisages the appointment of an Italian country manager and the setting up of a panel of Generali's international managers that would ensure a more efficient and speedier control over international operations, a financial source told Reuters last week confirming a report in Italian paper Il Sole 24 Ore.
"There is room for further improvement but the role of chairman has clearly been improved, by making Geronzi non-executive," WestLB analyst Thomas Noack said.
Third quarter (euros, percent):
mean median high low analysts 2009 Total premiums(bln) 16.0 16.1 16.4 15.5 9 15.7 Opg profit (million) 938 912 1,042 848 11
927 Net profit (million) 440 434 588 383 13
390 Combined ratio (percent) 98.3 98.3 97.5 99.1 8
97.9 ($1=.7193 Euro) (Editing by Jon Loades-Carter)