Allianz SpA starts up in Italy

Allianz SpA, the company created through the integration of the Italian operations of Allianz, the leading European insurance group, starts its operations today.

"Allianz’s new European dimension in Italy," said Enrico Cucchiani, Allianz SE board member and Allianz Spa’s managing director, "enables us to offer our customers insurance and financial products and services matching top European standards thanks to the sharing of the best internal skills and experience. This integration also provides the group with the chance to exploit new opportunities for growth and is a positive response to liberalization."

Allianz SpA is the second largest Italian insurance group with seven million customers, more than 6,500 employees, 2,600 tied insurance agents, 2,500 financial advisors and 20,000 people working in the distribution networks. The bancassurance products are sold through more than 3,300 bank branches.

With its transformation into an SE (Societas Europaea), Allianz Group wanted to attain a truly European status, with a strong and consolidated presence in Italy which represents the second key market for the group. "Being part of this Group," Cucchiani explained, "represents for us an opportunity: already, many Italian managers have key roles at an international level, and we created centers of excellence here in Italy, as the Research Laboratory for Non-Life business, offering our know-how to all Allianz companies world-wide."

Allianz SpA will operate in the Italian insurance market with three different brands and three different and separate sales networks: "Allianz Ras", "Allianz Lloyd Adriatico" and "Allianz Subalpina". The brands of the sales networks have been reinforced with the Allianz brand, to benefit from the group’s international strength and significant investments in communication. In line with the rebranding project, RASBank has changed its name to Allianz Bank Financial Advisors, and RAS Asset Management has become Allianz Global Investors Italia.

The new company has set up its registered office in Trieste, where both RAS (in 1838) and Lloyd Adriatico (in 1936) were founded. The project, launched in February for the integration of the group companies RAS, Lloyd Adriatico and Allianz Subalpina, was completed on schedule after the approval by the shareholders' meetings and having obtained the authorizations from the relevant authorities.

In Italy, in the first six months of 2007 the Allianz SpA Group achieved an overall premium volume in Life and Non-Life business of 7.8 billion euros, up 11.7 percent compared to the same period of the previous year. Premium income in Non-Life business stood at 2.6 billion euros (-1 percent) and in Life at 5.2 billion euros (+19.2 percent). Operating profit (IAS/IFRS figures) was up 16.5 percent to 726 million and net profit rose by 29 percent to 744 million euros.

In 2006, the Allianz SpA Group was in second place amongst the major insurance players with a market share of 12.7 percent and premiums of 13.5 billion euros. Specifically, premium income in the Life business was over 8.2 billion euros, with a market share of 11.7 percent, whereas in the Non-Life business the companies earned a premium income of 5.4 billion euros with a market share of 14.5 percent.

In the Personal Financial Services sector, the Allianz Group was third in the market for assets under management and administration with assets of 22.9 billion euros and a market share of 10.2 percent, and in fifth place in asset management with 53 billion euros and a market share of 4.8 percent.

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