Allianz
Encyclopedia
SE is a global financial services company headquartered in Munich
, Germany
. Its core business and focus is insurance
. As of 2010, it was the world's 12th-largest financial services group and 23rd-largest company according to a composite measure by Forbes
magazine.
Its Allianz Global Investors division ranks as a top-five global active investment manager, having €1,443 billion of assets under management
(AuM), of which €1,131 billion are third-party assets (as of 2010-09-30), with specialized asset managers such as PIMCO (Bond fund), RCM (Equity fund), Degi (Real estate fund), etc.
Allianz sold Dresdner Bank
to Commerzbank
in November 2008. As a result of this merger, Allianz gained a 14% controlling stake in the new Commerzbank Group.
in 1949. The first step to become an international company started with the opening of a branch office in London in the late 19th century. After World War II
, global business activities were gradually resumed. Allianz opened an office in Paris in the late 1950s, and a management office for Italy in the 1960s. These expansions were followed in the 1970s by the establishment of business in Great Britain, the Netherlands, Spain, Brazil
and the United States. In 1986, Allianz acquired Cornhill Insurance PLC, London, and the purchase of a stake in Riunione Adriatica di Sicurità (RAS), Milan
, strengthened its presence in Western and Southern Europe in the 1980s. Recently, on February 8, 2006, RAS Shareholders approved the mergers with Allianz. In 1990, Allianz started an expansion into eight Eastern European countries with establishing a presence in Hungary. In the same decade, Allianz also acquired Fireman’s Fund, an insurer in the United States, which was followed by the purchase of Assurances Generales de France (AGF), Paris. These acquisitions were followed by the expansion into Asia with several joint ventures and acquisitions in China and South Korea. Around this time Allianz expanded its asset management business as well by purchasing for example asset management companies in California
.
, a large German bank. Allianz Group and Dresdner Bank combined their asset management activities by forming Allianz Global Investors. In 2002 Michael Diekmann succeeded Henning Schulte-Noelle as CEO of Allianz AG. The Allianz Group was reincorporated under a European Company Statute and, as a result of the cross-border merger with RAS, Allianz converted into a European Company (SE - Societas Europaea) on October 13, 2006. The Allianz Group also simplified its brand strategy from 2006 and their previous emblem was replaced by the current word-picture brand.
On 31. August 2008, Allianz announced that it would sell its lossmaking unit Dresdner Bank
to Commerzbank
for a total of 8.8 Bn Euro. Targeted date for the full sale was 2nd term 2009. After renegotiations it was announced in November 2008 that Commerzbank
would acquire the 100% ownership of Dresdner Bank
earlier (12 January 2009). The sale price was lowered to 5.5 Bn Euro. Shortly after this transaction completed, Commerzbank
had to be partially be nationalized by the German government to prevent it from bankruptcy. Allianz is currently keeping around 14% of Commerzbank Shares. The venture into the German banking space is said to have cost the insurance giant about 30-35 Bn Euro.
Allianz is now present in more than 70 countries with over 180,000 employees. At the top of the international group is the holding company, Allianz SE, with its head office in Munich. Allianz Group provides its more than 60 million customers worldwide with a comprehensive range of services in the areas of
• property and casualty insurance,
• life and health insurance,
• asset management and banking.
Bajaj allianz is one of the fastest growing private life insurance company in India.This has more than 1200 branches across country and deals in primarily unitlinked,traditional,health,child and pension policies.
Also, Allianz Cornhill Information Services (ACIS) is a captive offshore facility of Allianz Insurance plc, operating from the Technopark in Thiruvananthapuram
(Trivandrum), offering both IT and ITES services. ACIS is a CMMI Level 5 company providing world-class Application Development and Maintenance services to Allianz Insurance in the UK and some other Allianz companies. ACIS is also a pioneer of the ITeS industry in Kerala and is ISO 9001-2000 certified for its Business Process Operations.
Allianz started its life and Property & Casualty (P&C) operation in Slovakia in 1993 but the local subsidiary was never able to achieve a relevant market share. In 2001 Allianz AG bought the majority ownership in then state-owned Slovenská poisťovňa (SP, Slovak Insurance Company), at the time suffering from political mismanagement, asset-stripping and deep under-reserving. SP however held a market share of well over 50%, which had made it an attractive privatization target, where Allianz had to compete with such insurers as AXA or Aegon. Upon the purchase the local Allianz operation was merged with SP creating a new company Allianz - Slovenská poisťovňa. Its combined market share (life and P&C) presently stands at just below 40% (about 50% in P&C business), still making it by far the market leader.
in India Allianz Cornhill Information Services plc is located at Technopark, Trivandrum in Kerala
.
Allianz previously owned Kleinwort Benson
, which it inherited when it acquired Dresdner Bank
. The investment bank has subsequently been merged with the corporate bank of Dresdner Bank and rebranded as Dresdner Kleinwort
.
and Allianz Global Corporate and Specialty and Fireman's Fund. Allianz Life Insurance Company of North America employs close to 2000 employees. Allianz also owns Pacific Investment Management Company, commonly called PIMCO.
Allianz provided naming rights
for the Allianz Arena
, a football stadium in the north of Munich, Germany, which is sponsored by Allianz. The two professional Munich football clubs Bayern Munich
and TSV 1860 München
have played their home games at Allianz Arena since the start of the 2005–06 season. Both clubs had previously played their home games at the Munich Olympic Stadium; Bayern Munich since 1972 and 1860 München since the 1990s.
Allianz owned the Polish football team Gornik Zabrze
till April 2011 when has sold shares in controversial way.
Allianz had been in negotiations with the New York Jets
and the Giants
to buy naming rights to the New Meadowlands Stadium (now known as MetLife Stadium) in East Rutherford, NJ, but those talks ended due to opposition from Jewish groups and holocaust survivors.
Allianz has been involved in Formula One since 2000, firstly as a sponsor of the AT&T WilliamsF1 Team
, and since 2011 as a sponsor of the Mercedes GP Petronas team.
In early 2009, Allianz signed an agreement to become the Global Partner of the St. Andrews Links Trust.
The research concluded that Allianz, as an organization and through its corporate officers, was forced to comply with the Nazi Regime and the Third Reich, starting as early as the early 1930s and continuing all the way through to the collapse of the Third Reich.
Among the more notable examples:
Allianz managers held senior positions in the administration of national socialist Germany. Kurt Schmitt
, director general of Allianz until 1933, was Hitler’s Reich Economics Minister from June 1933 until January 1935. He became a member of both the Nazi Party and the SS in 1933, rising to the rank of Brigadeführer
, which is a one-star general in the SS. Eduard Hilgard, member of the board of Allianz, became head of the "Reich Group for Insurance" in 1934. He represented the insurance industry in a conference summoned by Hermann Göring after the November Pogrom of 1938. Hilgard reported on the material damages caused during the Kristallnacht Pogrom and the estimated amounts of money insurance companies had to cover.
Feldman summarized his findings stating: "It was just one more piece of business in the Third Reich, but it demonstrated that such pieces on any large scale made contact at some point with all that is represented by the name “Auschwitz” – from slave labor to extermination – virtually inescapable.“
Munich
Munich The city's motto is "" . Before 2006, it was "Weltstadt mit Herz" . Its native name, , is derived from the Old High German Munichen, meaning "by the monks' place". The city's name derives from the monks of the Benedictine order who founded the city; hence the monk depicted on the city's coat...
, Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
. Its core business and focus is insurance
Insurance
In law and economics, insurance is a form of risk management primarily used to hedge against the risk of a contingent, uncertain loss. Insurance is defined as the equitable transfer of the risk of a loss, from one entity to another, in exchange for payment. An insurer is a company selling the...
. As of 2010, it was the world's 12th-largest financial services group and 23rd-largest company according to a composite measure by Forbes
Forbes
Forbes is an American publishing and media company. Its flagship publication, the Forbes magazine, is published biweekly. Its primary competitors in the national business magazine category are Fortune, which is also published biweekly, and Business Week...
magazine.
Its Allianz Global Investors division ranks as a top-five global active investment manager, having €1,443 billion of assets under management
Assets under management
Assets under management is a financial term used denote the market value of funds being managed by a financial instutition on behalf of its clients, investors, depositors, etc. This metric is a sign of size and success against competition...
(AuM), of which €1,131 billion are third-party assets (as of 2010-09-30), with specialized asset managers such as PIMCO (Bond fund), RCM (Equity fund), Degi (Real estate fund), etc.
Allianz sold Dresdner Bank
Dresdner Bank
Dresdner Bank AG was one of Germany's largest banking corporations and was based in Frankfurt. It was acquired by competitor Commerzbank in December 2009.- 19th century :...
to Commerzbank
Commerzbank
Commerzbank AG is the second-largest bank in Germany, after Deutsche Bank, headquartered in Frankfurt am Main.-Activities:Commerzbank is mainly active in commercial bank, retail banking and mortgaging. It suffered reversals in investment banking in early 2000s and scaled back its Securities unit...
in November 2008. As a result of this merger, Allianz gained a 14% controlling stake in the new Commerzbank Group.
History
Allianz AG was founded in Berlin on 5 February 1890 by Carl von Thieme (a native of Erfurt, whose father was the director of Thuringia) and Wilhelm von Finck (co-owner of the Merck Finck & Co bank).20th century
Allianz shifted its headquarters to MunichMunich
Munich The city's motto is "" . Before 2006, it was "Weltstadt mit Herz" . Its native name, , is derived from the Old High German Munichen, meaning "by the monks' place". The city's name derives from the monks of the Benedictine order who founded the city; hence the monk depicted on the city's coat...
in 1949. The first step to become an international company started with the opening of a branch office in London in the late 19th century. After World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, global business activities were gradually resumed. Allianz opened an office in Paris in the late 1950s, and a management office for Italy in the 1960s. These expansions were followed in the 1970s by the establishment of business in Great Britain, the Netherlands, Spain, Brazil
Brazil
Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...
and the United States. In 1986, Allianz acquired Cornhill Insurance PLC, London, and the purchase of a stake in Riunione Adriatica di Sicurità (RAS), Milan
Milan
Milan is the second-largest city in Italy and the capital city of the region of Lombardy and of the province of Milan. The city proper has a population of about 1.3 million, while its urban area, roughly coinciding with its administrative province and the bordering Province of Monza and Brianza ,...
, strengthened its presence in Western and Southern Europe in the 1980s. Recently, on February 8, 2006, RAS Shareholders approved the mergers with Allianz. In 1990, Allianz started an expansion into eight Eastern European countries with establishing a presence in Hungary. In the same decade, Allianz also acquired Fireman’s Fund, an insurer in the United States, which was followed by the purchase of Assurances Generales de France (AGF), Paris. These acquisitions were followed by the expansion into Asia with several joint ventures and acquisitions in China and South Korea. Around this time Allianz expanded its asset management business as well by purchasing for example asset management companies in California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
.
21st century
In 2001, Allianz acquired Dresdner BankDresdner Bank
Dresdner Bank AG was one of Germany's largest banking corporations and was based in Frankfurt. It was acquired by competitor Commerzbank in December 2009.- 19th century :...
, a large German bank. Allianz Group and Dresdner Bank combined their asset management activities by forming Allianz Global Investors. In 2002 Michael Diekmann succeeded Henning Schulte-Noelle as CEO of Allianz AG. The Allianz Group was reincorporated under a European Company Statute and, as a result of the cross-border merger with RAS, Allianz converted into a European Company (SE - Societas Europaea) on October 13, 2006. The Allianz Group also simplified its brand strategy from 2006 and their previous emblem was replaced by the current word-picture brand.
On 31. August 2008, Allianz announced that it would sell its lossmaking unit Dresdner Bank
Dresdner Bank
Dresdner Bank AG was one of Germany's largest banking corporations and was based in Frankfurt. It was acquired by competitor Commerzbank in December 2009.- 19th century :...
to Commerzbank
Commerzbank
Commerzbank AG is the second-largest bank in Germany, after Deutsche Bank, headquartered in Frankfurt am Main.-Activities:Commerzbank is mainly active in commercial bank, retail banking and mortgaging. It suffered reversals in investment banking in early 2000s and scaled back its Securities unit...
for a total of 8.8 Bn Euro. Targeted date for the full sale was 2nd term 2009. After renegotiations it was announced in November 2008 that Commerzbank
Commerzbank
Commerzbank AG is the second-largest bank in Germany, after Deutsche Bank, headquartered in Frankfurt am Main.-Activities:Commerzbank is mainly active in commercial bank, retail banking and mortgaging. It suffered reversals in investment banking in early 2000s and scaled back its Securities unit...
would acquire the 100% ownership of Dresdner Bank
Dresdner Bank
Dresdner Bank AG was one of Germany's largest banking corporations and was based in Frankfurt. It was acquired by competitor Commerzbank in December 2009.- 19th century :...
earlier (12 January 2009). The sale price was lowered to 5.5 Bn Euro. Shortly after this transaction completed, Commerzbank
Commerzbank
Commerzbank AG is the second-largest bank in Germany, after Deutsche Bank, headquartered in Frankfurt am Main.-Activities:Commerzbank is mainly active in commercial bank, retail banking and mortgaging. It suffered reversals in investment banking in early 2000s and scaled back its Securities unit...
had to be partially be nationalized by the German government to prevent it from bankruptcy. Allianz is currently keeping around 14% of Commerzbank Shares. The venture into the German banking space is said to have cost the insurance giant about 30-35 Bn Euro.
Allianz is now present in more than 70 countries with over 180,000 employees. At the top of the international group is the holding company, Allianz SE, with its head office in Munich. Allianz Group provides its more than 60 million customers worldwide with a comprehensive range of services in the areas of
• property and casualty insurance,
• life and health insurance,
• asset management and banking.
Operations
Australia
Allianz Australia Limited (ABN 21 000 006 226) operates throughout Australia and New Zealand and through its subsidiaries offers a range of insurance and risk management products and services. Subsidiaries of Allianz Australia include Club Marine, Allianz Life and Hunter Premium Funding.Belgium
Allianz operates through Allianz Belgium, previously AGF Belgium which has been re-branded to Allianz Belgium on the 29 November 2007.Canada
Allianz put a sudden halt to its Canadian P&C operation Allianz Canada (market share 2%) in 2004 after several years of unfavorable business results. Allianz originally entered the Canadian market in the early 1990s through an acquisition of several North American insurers, namely the American Firemans Fund and the Canadian Surety. Upon the market exit the personal and commercial lines unit was sold off to the market leader ING Canada, whereas its industrial underwriting branch was bought by Allianz US, which has retained the Toronto office.India
In India Bajaj Allianz General Insurance Company Limited is a joint venture between Bajaj Finserv Limited (recently demerged from Bajaj Auto Limited) and Allianz SE.Bajaj allianz is one of the fastest growing private life insurance company in India.This has more than 1200 branches across country and deals in primarily unitlinked,traditional,health,child and pension policies.
Also, Allianz Cornhill Information Services (ACIS) is a captive offshore facility of Allianz Insurance plc, operating from the Technopark in Thiruvananthapuram
Thiruvananthapuram
Thiruvananthapuram , formerly known as Trivandrum, is the capital of the Indian state of Kerala and the headquarters of the Thiruvananthapuram District. It is located on the west coast of India near the extreme south of the mainland...
(Trivandrum), offering both IT and ITES services. ACIS is a CMMI Level 5 company providing world-class Application Development and Maintenance services to Allianz Insurance in the UK and some other Allianz companies. ACIS is also a pioneer of the ITeS industry in Kerala and is ISO 9001-2000 certified for its Business Process Operations.
Slovakia
United Kingdom
Allianz owns British insurance company Cornhill Insurance plc, subsequently renamed Allianz Cornhill Insurance plc. This then simply became Allianz Insurance plc on 30 April 2007 to directly reflect its continental parentage. It also owns the High Net Worth insurance broker Home and Legacy. Their IT captive unitCaptive unit
A captive unit is a business unit of a company functioning offshore as an entity of its own while retaining the work and close operational tie ups within the parent company....
in India Allianz Cornhill Information Services plc is located at Technopark, Trivandrum in Kerala
Kerala
or Keralam is an Indian state located on the Malabar coast of south-west India. It was created on 1 November 1956 by the States Reorganisation Act by combining various Malayalam speaking regions....
.
Allianz previously owned Kleinwort Benson
Kleinwort Benson
Kleinwort Benson is a leading Private Bank that offers a wide range of financial services to private and corporate clients from offices throughout the United Kingdom and Channel Islands. The bank has its headquarters on St George Street in Mayfair, and is supported by seven UK regional and two...
, which it inherited when it acquired Dresdner Bank
Dresdner Bank
Dresdner Bank AG was one of Germany's largest banking corporations and was based in Frankfurt. It was acquired by competitor Commerzbank in December 2009.- 19th century :...
. The investment bank has subsequently been merged with the corporate bank of Dresdner Bank and rebranded as Dresdner Kleinwort
Dresdner Kleinwort
Dresdner Kleinwort was a British-based investment bank: it disappeared as a brand from the world of investment banking in September 2009, when its remaining businesses adopted the Commerzbank branding.-History:...
.
United States
Allianz has a growing prevalence within the United States, notably Allianz Life Insurance Company of North AmericaAllianz Life
Minneapolis-based Allianz Life Insurance Company of North America provides annuities and life insurance products in the United States in all states except for New York...
and Allianz Global Corporate and Specialty and Fireman's Fund. Allianz Life Insurance Company of North America employs close to 2000 employees. Allianz also owns Pacific Investment Management Company, commonly called PIMCO.
Recent management
CEOs to date:- 2003 — Present : Michael Diekmann
- 1991 — 2003: Henning Schulte-Noelle
Sponsorships
Naming rights
In the private sector, naming rights are a financial transaction whereby a corporation or other entity purchases the right to name a facility, typically for a defined period of time. For properties like a multi-purpose arena, performing arts venue or an athletic field, the term ranges from three...
for the Allianz Arena
Allianz Arena
The Allianz Arena is a football stadium in the north of Munich, Bavaria, Germany. The two professional Munich football clubs FC Bayern Munich and TSV 1860 München have played their home games at Allianz Arena since the start of the 2005–06 season...
, a football stadium in the north of Munich, Germany, which is sponsored by Allianz. The two professional Munich football clubs Bayern Munich
FC Bayern Munich
FC Bayern Munich , is a German sports club based in Munich, Bavaria. It is best known for its professional football team, which is the most successful football club in Germany, having won 22 national titles and 15 cups....
and TSV 1860 München
TSV 1860 München
Turn- und Sportverein München von 1860, commonly known as TSV 1860 München or 1860 Munich, is a German sports club based in Munich, Bavaria. The club's football team plays in the Second Bundesliga, after relegation from the Bundesliga following the 2003–04 season...
have played their home games at Allianz Arena since the start of the 2005–06 season. Both clubs had previously played their home games at the Munich Olympic Stadium; Bayern Munich since 1972 and 1860 München since the 1990s.
Allianz owned the Polish football team Gornik Zabrze
Górnik Zabrze
Górnik Zabrze is a Polish football club from Zabrze. The club has won numerous championships, and was a dominant force in the 1960s and 1980s. For now Górnik has the most titles in Poland. The club plays in white or dark blue - red kit, and is based at the Ernest Pohl Stadium...
till April 2011 when has sold shares in controversial way.
Allianz had been in negotiations with the New York Jets
New York Jets
The New York Jets are a professional football team headquartered in Florham Park, New Jersey, representing the New York metropolitan area. The team is a member of the Eastern Division of the American Football Conference in the National Football League...
and the Giants
New York Giants
The New York Giants are a professional American football team based in East Rutherford, New Jersey, representing the New York City metropolitan area. The Giants are currently members of the Eastern Division of the National Football Conference in the National Football League...
to buy naming rights to the New Meadowlands Stadium (now known as MetLife Stadium) in East Rutherford, NJ, but those talks ended due to opposition from Jewish groups and holocaust survivors.
Allianz has been involved in Formula One since 2000, firstly as a sponsor of the AT&T WilliamsF1 Team
WilliamsF1
Williams Grand Prix Engineering Limited, trading as AT&T Williams, is a British Formula One motor racing team and constructor. It was founded and run by Sir Frank Williams and Patrick Head...
, and since 2011 as a sponsor of the Mercedes GP Petronas team.
In early 2009, Allianz signed an agreement to become the Global Partner of the St. Andrews Links Trust.
Controversies
In 1993 Henning Schulte-Noelle commissioned a new Archive for Corporate History, becoming the first Allianz CEO to address the company's activities during the Third Reich. The Archive opened in 1996. In 1997 Schulte-Noelle asked Gerald D. Feldman, historian from the University of California-Berkeley, if he would undertake a larger research project on Allianz's past involvement with the Third Reich. Feldman started the research in 1998 with a team of young historians. A few month later, Jewish World War II survivors and their descendants took Allianz and other European insurance companies to court, accusing them of unpaid insurance policies. Allianz and four other insurers supported the creation of the "International Commission on Holocaust Era Insurance Claims" (ICHEIC). Furthermore, Allianz became a founding member of the German Foundation "Remembrance, Responsibility and Future". Both organizations took care of payments for the victims. Feldman published the comprehensive results of his research in September 2001. Based on these results Allianz established an exhibition in the Archive for Corporate History and on the Internet.The research concluded that Allianz, as an organization and through its corporate officers, was forced to comply with the Nazi Regime and the Third Reich, starting as early as the early 1930s and continuing all the way through to the collapse of the Third Reich.
Among the more notable examples:
Allianz managers held senior positions in the administration of national socialist Germany. Kurt Schmitt
Kurt Schmitt
Kurt Paul Schmitt was a German economic leader and the Reich Economy Minister....
, director general of Allianz until 1933, was Hitler’s Reich Economics Minister from June 1933 until January 1935. He became a member of both the Nazi Party and the SS in 1933, rising to the rank of Brigadeführer
Brigadeführer
SS-Brigadeführer was an SS rank that was used in Nazi Germany between the years of 1932 and 1945. Brigadeführer was also an SA rank....
, which is a one-star general in the SS. Eduard Hilgard, member of the board of Allianz, became head of the "Reich Group for Insurance" in 1934. He represented the insurance industry in a conference summoned by Hermann Göring after the November Pogrom of 1938. Hilgard reported on the material damages caused during the Kristallnacht Pogrom and the estimated amounts of money insurance companies had to cover.
Feldman summarized his findings stating: "It was just one more piece of business in the Third Reich, but it demonstrated that such pieces on any large scale made contact at some point with all that is represented by the name “Auschwitz” – from slave labor to extermination – virtually inescapable.“
See also
- European Financial Services RoundtableEuropean Financial Services RoundtableThe European Financial Services Roundtable is a European organization, located in Brussels, Belgium, of financial service companies to provide a voice on policies of the European Union related to financial matters...
- The Geneva Association