Helvetia Insurance
| Helvetia Holding
|
|
|---|---|
_logo.svg&filetimestamp=20080805212631&){kind=logo} |
|
| legal form | Corporation |
| ISIN | CH0466642201 |
| founding | 1858 |
| Seat |
St. Gallen , Switzerland
|
| management |
Philipp Gmür ( Chief Executive Officer ) Doris Russi Schurter ( VR-President ) |
| Number of employees | 6,624 (2018) |
| sales | 9.073 billion CHF (2018) (business volume ) |
| Branch | Insurance |
| Website | www.helvetia.com |
The Helvetia is a global Swiss insurance group . The group of companies has been organized in a holding structure since 1996 . The headquarters of the Helvetia Group ( own spelling: Helvetia Group ) is in St. Gallen .
Corporate structure
The group of companies employs around 6,600 people across Europe and, in addition to Switzerland, also operates in Germany , Austria , Italy , France and Spain as well as in Latin America and Asia . The company operates worldwide as a specialty and reinsurance business.
Parent company of the Helvetia Group is the Helvetia Holding AG , whose registered shares on the Swiss Exchange SIX Swiss Exchange listed are. The largest shareholder in the insurance group is the Patria Genossenschaft with a stake of 34.1 percent.
Financial results of Helvetia Holding
| Business
year |
Business volume
(in CHF million) |
Period result
(IFRS after taxes, in CHF million) |
Earnings per share
(in CHF) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2018 | 9073 | 431 | 41.9 |
| 2017 | 8641 | 403 | 40.5 |
| 2016 | 8513 | 377 | 36.1 |
| 2015 | 8235 | 309 | 29.0 |
| 2014 | 7767 | 393 | 43.0 |
| 2013 | 7477 | 363 | 40.9 |
| 2012 | 6978 | 333 | 37.1 |
| 2011 | 7172 | 289 | 32.6 |
| 2010 | 6755 | 342 | 39.3 |
history
Helvetia was founded in St. Gallen in 1858 as the general insurance company Helvetia . It was the first company in Switzerland to offer insurance against the dangers of land, river and sea transport. Three years later, a private fire insurance company called Helvetia Feuer was set up in St. Gallen . The reason for this was the fire in Glarus .
In the course of its history, Helvetia expanded into all five continents and thus laid the foundation for business activities outside Switzerland. In 1862, Helvetia Feuer established its first branches in Germany and from 1876 expanded to the USA, where it opened branches in California and New York. Between 1920 and 1962 further Helvetia subsidiaries were established in France , Italy , Greece (sold 1997), the Netherlands (sold 1995) and Canada (sold 1999). In Austria, the history of Helvetia goes back to the establishment of Der Anker, the society of life and pension insurance, in 1858. Until 2006, Helvetia Austria also operated under this name. Subsidiaries were founded in Spain, Italy and Germany between 1986 and 1988.
In 1968 the general insurance company Helvetia merged with Helvetia Unfall and Helvetia Leben . Since then, the medium-sized insurance group has offered the entire range of products in life and non-life business. In 1974 Helvetia Feuer and Helvetia Allgemeine then merged to form Helvetia Feuer. On October 11, 1988, at an extraordinary general meeting of Helvetia Feuer and Helvetia Unfall , the shareholders resolved to completely separate the two partner companies. Helvetia Unfall took on the name Elvia (now part of Allianz Global Assistance ), which its subsidiary, which operates as a travel insurer, already bore. Helvetia Feuer was renamed Helvetia Insurance and received a new corporate identity and image. The three-dimensional triangle symbol was introduced.
Helvetia and Patria
In 1996 the company merged with the traditional Basel life insurer Patria. The beginnings of Patria go back to the establishment of the Basler death and old age fund in 1878. For the first time, the non-profit provision fund insured the lives of socially disadvantaged people with the aim of actually providing national insurance. After various name changes and mergers, the Swiss life insurance company Patria was created in 1910 . In 1992, Helvetia and Patria decide to work on the Swiss market together in future and enter into a strategic alliance. Helvetia Patria Holding was established in June 1996.
Further development
In 2010, Helvetia bought the Swiss insurance companies Alba Allgemeine Versicherungs-Gesellschaft AG (Alba) as well as Phenix Versicherungsgesellschaft AG and Phenix Lebensversicherungsgesellschaft AG (Phenix). The Alba / Phenix portfolio in the health / accident insurance sector was sold to the two insurance companies innova and Solida.
In 2014, Nationale Suisse and the Austrian subsidiary of Baloise were taken over. For the takeover, Helvetia increased its stake in Nationale Suisse to over 98 percent and then initiated the procedure to invalidate the remaining shares. Nationale Suisse also included smile.direct, an online insurer. With the takeover, this also became part of the Helvetia Group. The purchase was one of the largest insurance takeovers in Switzerland in recent years.
In 2016, Helvetia acquired 70 percent of the shares in the online mortgage broker MoneyPark. The purchase price was around 107 million francs. With this majority stake, Helvetia entered the Swiss mortgage business. “In particular, the acquisition is also an important step towards digitization and more customer focus as part of our strategy,” said Helvetia CEO Philipp Gmür .
At the beginning of 2017, the company announced that it would use its own venture fund to invest in start-ups that would support the transformation of the existing core business or develop new business models. The fund is endowed with around 55 million francs and wants to invest in around 25 start-up companies. Among other things, the venture fund has invested in Volocopter , Flatfox, Pricehubble and the Insurtech INZMO. Helvetia has also set up a program for the development of internal start-ups and supports start-ups with an accelerator program.
Group management and board of directors
Helvetia is led by a group management team of eleven. Philipp Gmür has been the chairman since September 1, 2016 . The board of directors has ten members. Doris Russi Schurter is the president. She already held the office on an interim basis in 2015, before Pierin Vincenz was elected President. He resigned in December 2017 due to FINMA proceedings against him relating to his previous work at Raiffeisen. In April 2018 Doris Russi Schurter was officially elected as Vincenz's successor at the General Assembly.
International activities
Helvetia is increasingly positioning itself with a cross-border brand presence in Western Europe. In Austria, Germany, Italy and Spain, which are combined in the Europe segment, Helvetia is organized in its own national companies. Here, as in Switzerland, the focus is on business with private customers and small and medium-sized companies. Helvetia also offers all important non-life products in these countries. 32% of the total business volume comes from the European segment. In the non-life area it is even 42%. The acquisition of the Spanish insurance company Caser in 2020 will significantly strengthen the market position in Spain. For the controlling majority of 70%, € 780 million will be paid.
In the Specialty Markets segment, Helvetia offers specialty insurance for art , engineering and transport as well as active reinsurance solutions worldwide. For this purpose, Helvetia has branches in Istanbul , in Miami for the Latin American market and in Kuala Lumpur and Singapore for the Asian market. The French subsidiary also offers transport and art insurance.
Art and Art Prize
Helvetia has an art collection with works by over 300 contemporary Swiss artists. In the Helvetia Art Foyer in Basel, works from the collection are shown in exhibitions and artists are invited to solo exhibitions. In addition, the Helvetia Art Prize has been awarded annually since 2004. This is awarded to a graduate from a Swiss art college. The award includes an exhibition at the LISTE international art fair and prize money of 15,000 francs.
Previous winners:
- 2019: Kaspar Ludwig, Basel School of Design and Art
- 2018: Gina Proenza, Ecole cantonale d'art de Lausanne
- 2017: Andriu Deplazes, Zurich University of the Arts
- 2016: STELLA; Zurich University of the Arts
- 2015: Dijan Kahrimanovic, F + F School for Art and Media Design, Zurich
- 2014: Thomas Moor, Zurich University of the Arts
- 2013: Michael Meier & Christoph Franz, Zurich University of the Arts
- 2012: Kathrin Affentranger, Bern University of the Arts
- 2011: Josse Bailly, Haute école d'art et de design Genève
- 2010: Elisa Larvego, Haute école d'art et de design Genève
- 2009: Florian Germann, Zurich University of the Arts
- 2008: Nicole Bachmann, Zurich University of the Arts
- 2007: Luc Mattenberger, Haute école d'art et de design Genève
- 2006: Aloïs Godinat, Ecole cantonale d'art de Lausanne
- 2005: Swann Thommen (collectif-fact), Haute école d'art et de design Genève
- 2004: Kathrin Stengele, Bern University of the Arts
Sponsorship and engagement
Helvetia has been the association sponsor of the Swiss Ski Association, Swiss-Ski , the umbrella organization for Swiss snow sports , since the 2005/06 season . It supports around 250 athletes from eight disciplines. Helvetia has also been the presenting partner of the Swiss Football Cup since 2016 . Helvetia also supports projects in sport in the surrounding European countries, such as the cross-country world cup.
Helvetia is committed to the establishment of protective forests and has been the main sponsor of the Alpine Protective Forest Prize since 2014.
Web links
- Peter Müller: Helvetia Insurance. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .
- Helvetia Group website
Individual evidence
- ↑ Dieter Bachmann: Pierin Vincenz resigns as President of Helvetia. In: Neue Zürcher Zeitung. 18th December 2017.
- ↑ a b c 2018 annual financial statements . Helvetia Insurance, accessed on April 15, 2019
- ↑ Werner Enz: A takeover with no surprise effect | NZZ . In: Neue Zürcher Zeitung . July 7, 2014, ISSN 0376-6829 ( nzz.ch [accessed July 27, 2018]).
- ↑ Helvetia and Nationale Suisse: The Mega Deal - Balance. Retrieved July 27, 2018 .
- ↑ Helvetia takes over Moneypark . In: finews.ch . December 16, 2016 ( finews.ch [accessed July 27, 2018]).
- ↑ Fintech: Helvetia prepares with the big ladle. January 11, 2017, accessed on July 23, 2019 (German).
- ↑ Insurance - Helvetia takes a stake in the aviation start-up Volocopter. November 14, 2017, accessed on July 23, 2019 (German).
- ↑ moneycab: The Helvetia Venture Fund participates in flatfox, a digital real estate service provider. June 1, 2018, accessed on July 23, 2019 (Swiss Standard German).
- ↑ PriceHubble: Valuation start-up collects several million. In: REAL ESTATE Business. December 18, 2017, accessed on July 23, 2019 (German).
- ↑ inside-it.ch: Helvetia Fund invests in Estonian insurtech Inzmo. Retrieved July 23, 2019 .
- ↑ Helvetia: Comprehensive concept for cooperation with startups Startupticker.ch | The Swiss Startup News channel. Retrieved July 23, 2019 .
- ↑ Werner Enz Helvetia is betting on the Spain card with the purchase of Caser. NZZ, January 25, 2020, accessed on January 25, 2020
- ↑ The fascination of Swiss art | Helvetia.ch . In: Helvetia Insurance . ( helvetia.com [accessed July 27, 2018]).
- ↑ List Art Fair: Helvetia Art Prize - Exhibitor - LISTE Art Fair Basel. Retrieved July 27, 2018 .
- ↑ List: Art Price. Retrieved June 10, 2018 .
- ↑ Swiss Ski: Helvetia | Swiss ski. Retrieved July 27, 2018 .
- ↑ Swiss Football Association - partner. Retrieved July 27, 2018 .
- ^ Helvetia - Sponsor of the FIS Cross-Country World Cup - FIS-SKI. Retrieved on August 14, 2019 .
- ↑ General - Alpiner Schutzwaldpreis-Helvetia - ARGE - ARGE Alpenländische Forstvereine. Retrieved July 27, 2018 .