MILAN (Bloomberg) — Assicurazioni Generali SpA, Europe's third-biggest insurer, said third-quarter profit fell 64 percent, missing analysts' estimates, on write-downs linked to the global financial crisis and lower income from its life business.

Net income decreased to 210 million euros ($273 million) from 587 million euros a year earlier, the Trieste, Italy-based company said yesterday in a statement. That missed the 250 million-euro median estimate of seven analysts surveyed by Bloomberg. Operating profit from the life-insurance unit fell 19 percent to 454 million.

Generali, which is seeking to offset slower growth in its main markets by focusing on eastern Europe, is being hurt by the credit crunch and its impact on the global economy. Italian insurers' life premiums fell 10 percent in the first nine months of the year, regulator ISVAP said on October 23.

"The rapid deterioration in the third quarter of the financial markets and the increasingly uncertain outlook for the remainder of the year" have made it "difficult to provide reliable full-year guidance," the company said in the statement.

The insurer had 2 billion euros of write-downs in the first nine months of the year. It didn't provide a breakdown for the quarter or further details.

European financial-services firms are suffering after the collapse of the US sub-prime-mortgage market last year led to a wave of banking failures and mergers, hurting global markets and making borrowing more expensive. Insurers are being affected in different ways.

Dutch companies ING Groep NV and Aegon NV are cutting dividends and receiving government lifelines to prop up their finances after posting losses. Aviva Plc, the UK's biggest insurer by assets, said last week its reserves were sufficient and that it has no plans to cut its dividend.