Allianz Group: Headquartered in Munich, Germany, Allianz is Europe's largest integrated financial group and one of the world's leading integrated insurance groups and asset management groups. Allianz is a world-leading provider of insurance and financial services. Allianz offers its customers a comprehensive range of services worldwide in the areas of property and liability insurance, personal accident insurance, life and health insurance, asset management and banking.
The history of Allianz in Germany
In 1998, the Allianz Group generated premium income of DM 90.4 billion. With its substantial growth in earnings, its worldwide presence and its diversified management structure, the Allianz Group is well positioned for the next millennium.
Allianz was founded in 1890 in Berlin, Germany. From the very beginning, Allianz focused on opening new lines of insurance. In 1900, Allianz pioneered engineering insurance, a field in which it is today a world leader. By acquiring domestic insurance companies and building up and improving its distribution network, Allianz soon rose to become a pioneer in the German insurance industry.
Its leading position was further strengthened by the establishment of Allianz Life Insurance in 1922. In 1954, the Allianz division moved to Munich and the company's business quickly recovered.
From the 1950s onwards, Allianz opened branches in France and Italy, expanding the group outside Germany. In the 1980s and 1990s, many well-known insurance companies from outside Germany joined the Allianz Group, including RAS in Italy, Cornhill in the UK, Fireman's Fund in the USA and the Swiss insurance group ELVIA.
At the beginning of 1998, Allianz also successfully acquired AGF Insurance Group of France, the sixth largest general insurance company in the world. Today Allianz has gross premium income of DM 90.4 billion, net income of DM 3.6 billion, a market value of assets under management of DM 671 billion, a 33.5% increase in equity and is rated as a AAA company by Standard & Poor's in 1998. In August 1998, Allianz was ranked 28th in Fortune magazine's list of the 500 largest companies in the world. As one of the world's largest investors, Allianz owns shares in some of the world's leading industrial groups such as Siemens, BASF and Volkswagen, and also invests in leading financial institutions such as Deutsche Bank and Dresdner Bank.
In addition, the Allianz Group is a major shareholder in more than 300 branches worldwide. Through its extensive international customer service network, Allianz is able to be a close partner to many of the leading international industrial groups with significant investments in China. As a major underwriter, Allianz insures nearly 100 of the world's 500 largest companies, including IBM and The Coca-Cola Company.
As one of the leading international underwriters of industrial insurance, Allianz has a team of highly qualified engineers around the world. These experts not only provide professional advice to clients, but also design special insurance cover for them according to their different needs. The Allianz Technology Centre in the suburbs of Munich is the only specialist research facility of its kind in the world of insurance, specialising in the prevention of industrial accidents and the improvement of motor vehicle safety. The centre provides industrial customers with world-leading research and technical experience Allianz in the Asia-Pacific region In the Asia-Pacific region, the Allianz Group has a strong presence in almost all important countries and regions, with regional headquarters in Singapore. To strengthen its market position in the Asia Pacific region, Allianz has made a number of initiatives.
In late 1998, Allianz acquired all the shares of MMI, the seventh largest insurance company in Australia, making it a wholly owned subsidiary of Allianz.
In 2000, Pimco Advisors L.P., a California-based asset management company, was purchased. In the same year, Allianz shares were listed on the New York Stock Exchange.
2001 Allianz acquires the US asset management company Nicholas-Applegate and the German Dresdner Bank Group, including the German asset management companies dit and dbi, and the global asset management company RCM. Allianz Global Investors (also known as Allianz Global Investors) was formed. At the end of 2001, the new company managed assets of €620 billion for third party clients.
As a world-leading integrated insurance and asset management company, the Allianz Group operates in all financial sectors, including life and health, property and liability, all lines of reinsurance and risk management consulting, and provides asset management services to institutional and individual investors on a global basis. As of 2012, approximately 180,000 Allianz employees were serving clients worldwide.
The Group's most important insurance businesses are located in 77 countries and territories with a total of more than 80 million customers, a quarter of which are in the Asia Pacific region; 70% of the Group's premium income is generated outside Germany; in 32 countries and territories Allianz is among the top 5 in terms of premium income in the local insurance market.
Allianz is the largest insurer in Europe in terms of premium income, and has long been the world's number one insurer in property and casualty premium income, as well as one of the world's leading insurers in life insurance premium income and, in some years, the world's largest in combined premium income.
At the same time, the asset management business has become an important part of the Allianz Group's development. Through a series of mergers and acquisitions, the company is now among the top five asset management groups in the world. The company has a portfolio of well-known investment companies such as PIMCO and Allianz Allianz, and its business is mainly located in Europe, the United States and parts of the Asia-Pacific region.
As a global financial giant, Allianz has long been ranked among the top 500 companies in the world by Fortune magazine. From 2008 to 2012, Allianz was ranked 22nd, 20th, 20th, 27th and 28th respectively in the Fortune 500, demonstrating the solidity of the company's operations. In addition, in 2010 Allianz ranked first among the three largest European insurers in terms of net profit (AXA, Generali and Allianz, all ranked in the top 40 of the 2010 Fortune 500).
In addition to its main activities in life insurance, property insurance and asset management, the Allianz Group is committed to providing its clients with a more comprehensive range of risk management services.
Paris-based Euler Hermes, created in 2002 by the merger within the Allianz Group of Hermes Kreditversicherungs-AG, founded in 1917 by the French Eule Group (part of AGF Insurance), offers a wide range of services including trade credit insurance, employee fidelity insurance, bond and guarantee It is the world's largest credit insurer with a market share of more than one third and a presence in more than 50 countries worldwide.
Mondial Assistance Group, a subsidiary of Allianz, is the world's largest rescue group, with partnerships with third-party emergency agencies in more than 100 countries around the world, a 24-hour emergency hotline, services in English and major local languages, roadside assistance and emergency assistance for travel abroad, and a partnership with Allianz Insurance to develop international travel insurance. According to statistics, Mondial handles nearly 200,000 medical assistance cases each year, involving more than 27,000 cases of travellers being transferred back to their home countries in over 200 different countries.
In the suburbs of Munich, the headquarters of the Allianz Group, there is also the Allianz Technology Centre, a specialist research institute for industrial accident prevention and motor vehicle safety improvement, which crashes dozens of cars every year as an authoritative test for the classification of motor insurance by Allianz, and has also made major contributions to the development and use of airbags and anti-theft locks for cars.
With over 100 years of history, Allianz is also one of the world's most valuable brands. Interbrand, the world's largest integrated brand consultancy, ranked Allianz 67th among the world's best brands in 2010, the second highest among all financial companies, with a brand value of €4.9 billion.
Thanks to its strong position and financial strength in the global insurance and financial services sector, the Allianz Group holds high credit ratings from global credit rating agencies such as Standard & Poor's and the US insurance rating agency A.M. Best, AA+ and A++ respectively.
In addition, Allianz is a constituent of the DAX 30 index in Frankfurt, one of the three largest stock exchange indices in Europe, and is one of the leading blue chips on the European stock exchange, with a closing share price of €95.48 and a total market capitalisation of approximately €43 billion as at 8 July 2011.