La Unión y el Fénix
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La Unión y El Fénix Español was an international Spanish-French insurance group.
The El Fénix company was founded in Madrid on February 8, 1864 with Isaac Pereires Crédit Mobilier and his branches in Italy and the Netherlands in the background. The head office and the Paris branch began operating at the same time. The company dealt primarily with fire insurance - hence the company's symbol, the mythical phoenix bird reborn from flames . In 1879 there was a merger with another Franco-Spanish insurance company, hence the name extension. The company flourished and built stately corporate buildings on Parisian Boulevard Haussmann and in Madrid (today the Metropolis House )
In the first third of the 20th century, La Unión y El Fénix Español became the first and only multinational Spanish insurance company. At the turn of the century, the French branch in particular turned to life insurance .
Control of the group passed completely to the Spanish shareholders after the First World War, especially to the main shareholder Banco Español de Crédito . However, the international ambitions of the group could not be realized in view of the global economic crisis and the following political turbulence ( Spanish civil war , Second World War ). Nevertheless, La Unión y El Fénix Español was still the market leader in the Spanish insurance market around the mid-1960s and continues to be well represented in France.
La Unión y El Fénix Español, however, suffered heavily in the late 1980s and early 1990s from the crisis of the main shareholder, the Banco Español de Crédito. This was forced to sell the insurance company to the French company AGF . This again merged with the German Allianz group. Fénix Directo , a product from this group, is reminiscent of the former company in the brand name.
literature
- La Unión y El Fénix Español, 80 aniversario, 1864-1944 ; Madrid 1946
- La Unión y El Fénix Español, 1864-1964 , Madrid 1964
- La Unión y El Fénix Español. CXXV aniversario, 1864-1989 Madrid 1989