Assicurazioni Generali

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Assicurazioni Generali SpA

logo
legal form Società per azioni
ISIN IT0000062072
founding 1831
Seat Trieste , ItalyItalyItaly 
management
  • Gabriele Galateri di Genola,
    CEO
  • Philippe Donnet, CEO
Number of employees 71,936
sales EUR 69.78 billion
Branch Insurance ,
financial services
Website www.generali.com
As of December 31, 2019

The Assicurazioni Generali SpA , headquartered in Trieste is the largest Italian insurance group . In Germany the Assicurazioni Generali operates as Generali Deutschland . Assicurazioni Generali operates in 50 countries and was 58th in the list of the largest companies in the world in terms of sales in 2016 .

history

Founding share of Assicurazioni Generali Austro-Italiche dated June 30, 1832, signed by the company's founder Joseph Lazarus Morpurgo
Assicurazioni Generali headquarters on Corso Cavour in Trieste
Torre Generali in Milan
The Assicurazioni Generali worldwide

On December 26, 1831, the 47-article founding note was signed, which was adopted on February 16 of the following year at a general assembly in Trieste , Austria , where the company headquarters are located after several moves in the company's history. The company was originally called Assicurazioni Generali Austro-Italiche , and the founders were the businessman Joseph Lazarus Morpurgo (1759-1834) and the lawyer Giambattista Rosmini . Morpurgo paved the way for insurance for the whole of Austria-Hungary . The company expanded to Venice in July of that year , when offices were rented in the Procuratie Vecchie on St. Mark's Square . The company developed rapidly and was able to settle several million guilders in damages in the first few years.

Advertising the kk privilege. Assicurazioni Generali (1901)

In the following years the company set up branches in the various countries of Italy, which was not yet unified at the time. In 1832 was insurance in the Papal States , although only 1836, the Roman branch was established in the Grand Duchy of Tuscany and in the Kingdom of Sardinia represented, followed in 1833 with a branch in Naples , the Kingdom of the Two Sicily and in 1837 the Duchy of Parma and in 1839 the Duchy of Modena . At the same time, branches were established in major cities such as Vienna , Prague , Munich and Leipzig, but also in major port cities such as Hamburg , Bordeaux and Marseille .

In the course of the Risorgimento , the efforts to free Italy from Austrian domination and to unite it, there were disputes, as a result of which buildings of the insurance company were also affected by devastation - not least the name "Austro-Italiche" was a thorn in the side. In April 1848, the company deleted this name from the name and henceforth operated as Assicurazioni Generali . Leading personalities of the company were also active in the political disputes, parts of the management of the Venetian office supported Daniele Manin and the Repubblica di San Marco he had proclaimed and fled into exile after the city was recaptured by Austrian troops. Briefly halted by the turbulence in development, Generali recovered quickly and benefited from the economic upswing of the 1850s, which made it the largest insurance company in the Habsburg monarchy. This also went hand in hand with investments, especially in real estate, in particular farms and vineyards were acquired as capital investments. In 1857 Generali shares were first traded on the Trieste stock exchange.

From the beginning of the Second War of Independence in 1859, the economic environment deteriorated, Generali also posted losses and moved its headquarters to simpler buildings twice within a few years. After the successful conquest of Rome by the troops under the leadership of Giuseppe Garibaldi in 1870, Generali focused on the Italian market, where it was market leader under the name La Venezia , and thus escaped the massive effects of the so-called founder conflict, especially in Germany and Austria . In the wake of nationalistic tendencies in most European countries, Generali in Italy was on the one hand exposed to the accusation that it was actually a foreign company - Trieste was still an Austrian city at the time - on the other hand, the company was also viewed critically abroad in some cases. For this reason, on the one hand, the network of branches in Italy was strengthened and, on the other hand, Generali insurance subsidiaries began to set up in the key markets; the first subsidiary was Erste Allgemeine Schaden- und Unfallversicherung , which was licensed to operate in January 1882 and is based in Vienna. In addition, a number of specialist insurers were founded, which laid the foundation for the Generali Group.

Insurance policy of the Assicurazioni Generali from 1919

With the state endeavor on the part of the Italian government to place the insurance business in Italian hands, in particular through the Instituto Nazionale delle Assicurazioni (INA) founded in 1912, Generali was already subject to a policy that was disadvantageous for business activities shortly before the First World War , which occurred during the war culminated in a division of the company. While the business that had been running through Trieste to date was relocated to Vienna by order of the Austrian government, the Italian part relocated to Padua . The two parts were only reunited in 1919 and the first shareholders' meeting was held in Trieste, Italy, in December of that year. With the collapse of the Habsburg Empire, Generali had to reorganize itself, especially in the newly formed states. At the same time, economic bottlenecks and economic crises led to problems in the 1920s. While Generali recorded steady growth in the 1930s, the entry into the war in 1940 again marked a turning point for foreign business. In 1948 it expanded again abroad, first to Argentina and two years later to the United States; In the mid-1950s, Generali was again active in almost 60 countries on five continents. Due to the unclear status of Trieste after the Second World War, the management of Generali was temporarily based in Rome and Milan, but returned later.

Today the Generali Group is active in 68 countries around the world and ranks among the 100 largest companies worldwide on the Forbes list. In the global insurance industry, Generali ranks fifth after Allianz , AXA , ING Groep and American International Group . Up until 2006, all subsidiaries in Central and Eastern Europe were brought together under the umbrella of Generali Holding Vienna AG, which is based in Vienna . However, after purchasing the largest Czech insurance company, Česká pojišt'ovna , the newly founded Eastern Europe holding company will relocate its headquarters to Amsterdam; operational management will be in Prague . Generali will hold 51 percent and the Czech financial group PPF 49 percent in this holding company . The Vienna Generali branch, which was previously responsible for the Eastern European activities, will sell its Eastern European holdings to the parent company Assicurazioni Generali, which will then bring them into the Eastern Holding.

In Switzerland , Generali took over the previously independent insurance companies Schweizer Union (Geneva), Familia (St. Gallen), Fortuna (Tages-Anzeiger) and Secura (Migros) and merged them to form Generali Switzerland. The headquarters of Generali Switzerland is in Adliswil (near Zurich) with over 2,000 employees. The Swiss private bank BSI SA has also been part of the Generali Group since 1998 .

Shareholder structure

(As of June 2020)

Assicurazioni Generali SpA is 64.03% of the share capital in the hands of Italian investors.

Subsidiaries

In March 2019, Assicurazioni Generali comprised the following subsidiaries:

Others

The writer Franz Kafka worked from October 1907 to July 1908 as a lawyer at the Generali branch in Prague.

Original shield made of embossed sheet metal with raised gilt lettering and St. Mark's lion, approx. 1924–1940

At the beginning of business activity, Generali operated under a logo with an eagle with a double head. As part of the Risorgimento and the Repubblica di San Marco, supported by leading figures of the society, the society took over the Venetian lion in the logo, the patron saint and heraldic animal of the Maritime Republic of Venice. This was stylistically revised several times in the following years.

The Latin inscription of the corporate logo pax tibi marce evangelista meus can be translated as Peace be with you, Mark, my evangelist and also refers to the lion of Mark.

Note

A distinction must be made between the following three companies:

  • Assicurazioni Generali (Trieste) - is the Italian parent company
  • Generali Deutschland (Munich) - is the German holding company under which several insurance companies are bundled
  • Generali Versicherungen (Munich) - are the life and property insurance companies that appear on the market under the name Generali

See also

Web links

Commons : Assicurazioni Generali  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ generali.com - Board of Directors
  2. ↑ a b generali.com - Group Annual Integrated Report 2019
  3. ↑ Alex Witula: Le Più Belle Azioni D'Epoca, p. 41; ISBN 978-88-95848-10-5
  4. ↑ Ownership structure. Retrieved March 25, 2019 .
  5. ^ Generali - Global positioning