Nationale Suisse
| Swiss National Insurance Company AG
|
|
|---|---|
 |
|
| legal form | Corporation |
| ISIN | CH0100699641 |
| founding | 1883 |
| resolution | 2015 |
| Reason for dissolution | Merger with Helvetia Swiss Insurance Company AG |
| Seat |
Basel Switzerland
|
| Number of employees | 1918 (December 31, 2013) |
| sales | 1.495 billion CHF (premium income 2013) |
| Branch | Insurance |
The Swiss National Insurance Company AG (brand identity: Nationale Suisse ) was a Swiss insurance company with its corporate headquarters in Basel . It employed 1918 people and achieved premium income of 1.495 billion Swiss francs in the 2013 financial year, more than 30 percent of which was generated abroad. The company was listed on the Swiss stock exchange SIX Swiss Exchange listed . Nationale Suisse was taken over by the Swiss insurance group Helvetia at the end of October 2014 and integrated into the group in May 2015. In the course of the takeover, the Swiss National Insurance Company Ltd was delisted from the SIX Swiss Exchange.
Field of activity
The insurance group was active in Switzerland, Germany , Liechtenstein , Belgium , Italy and Spain . There was also a branch in Malaysia and Singapore. The Latin American and Turkish markets were also served via a sales base each in Miami and Istanbul. The insurer offered non-life as well as life insurance for private and business customers.
smile.direct insurance
In its Swiss business, the company offered direct insurance through the smile.direct insurance branch . The motor vehicle , household effects , personal liability, travel and legal expenses insurance sectors were mainly processed via the Internet. The premium volume in 2013 was around 64.0 million Swiss francs. Since May 2015 the insurance company has been operating as smile.direct insurance, a branch of Helvetia Schweizerische Versicherungsgesellschaft AG .
European travel insurance
Europäische Reiseversicherungs AG was a wholly owned subsidiary of Nationale Suisse and offered various travel insurances. In 2013, the travel insurer posted premiums of 78.7 million Swiss francs. In the course of the takeover by Helvetia, it was announced that Europäische Reiseversicherung would continue to operate as an independent brand within the framework of Helvetia's defined brand architecture.
history
Swiss Lloyd (1863-1883)
Exponents of the bank in Winterthur , together with almost all important companies from Winterthur , founded the Swiss Lloyd Transport Insurance Company on May 30, 1863, with its headquarters in Winterthur. Its first director was Ewald Moritz Lengstorf from Antwerp , who was only 23 at the time . In the same year Lengstorf was involved in the founding of the Swiss Reinsurance Company in Zurich and in 1875 in the founding of the Swiss Accident Insurance Company in Winterthur.
Swiss Lloyd very quickly rose to become the largest transport insurer on the continent . In 1880 he took in CHF 16.5 million . Most of this turnover came from abroad. The dividends shot quickly into the air, rising to 38% in the years 1869/70. In the 1970s the company found itself in financial distress due to the onset of recession , questionable business, and dishonest behavior on the part of the director and his deputy. Lengstorf committed suicide on January 2, 1883 . Society was at an end.
After the general assembly of the company ordered the liquidation of Schweizerischer Lloyd on April 14, 1883 , attempts were made to save the company by founding a new company. A new stock corporation was founded under the name Neue Schweizerischer Lloyd Transport-Versicherungs-Gesellschaft , once again based in Winterthur .
The New Swiss Lloyd (1883–1898)
The foundation
Very early in the spring of 1883, groups came together that dared to start a new society. It was desired to be able to continue the profitable elements of the liquidated company and to shut down the unprofitable fields of business. The founders also hoped that the experience of the last twenty years could be brought to the company and that the organization, the agency network and the material of the old company could be retained. In addition, it was assumed that the administration building in Lind would be obtainable at a preferential price.
The new statutes were adopted at Casino Winterthur , which provided for share capital of CHF 5 million. However, due to the placement process carried out by the bank in Winterthur, this amount had to be reduced to CHF 4 million.
On May 15, 1883 at 2:30 p.m., 26 of 154 shareholders met in the stock exchange hall in Casino Winterthur for the founding meeting. The people present represented 615 of the 800 shares issued. With 100 shares, the bank in Winterthur was the largest single shareholder. Almost everyone of high standing in Winterthur owned shares in the New Swiss Lloyd.
The founding board of directors
The first board of directors consisted of the following people:
- Kindlimann Reifer, from Winterthur
- Colonel J. Bringolf, from Schaffhausen
- Lieutenant Colonel Eduard Sulzer-Ziegler (senior), from Winterthur (President)
- Eduard Sulzer-Ziegler (jun.), From Winterthur (Vice President)
- Max Rieter-Wilson, from Winterthur
- Werner Sträuli-Knüsli, from Winterthur
- Colonel Tobler-Schellenberg, from Zurich Enge
Business development (1883–1897)
Company headquarters
The originally hoped-for acquisition of the administration building of the former Schweizerischer Lloyd could not be realized because the liquidation was more complicated than expected. In 1886 the building was auctioned off to the public and Neue Schweizerischer Lloyd rented the necessary rooms from the new owner. At the same time, the building served as the headquarters of Winterthur Insurance from 1886 to 1931 and was then used as a district building .
The new Swiss Lloyd was not limited to the Swiss transport market, which was small in terms of turnover, but quickly expanded its business activities to include all important trading centers and seaports. After just a month he owned agencies in London , Copenhagen , Amsterdam and Lübeck , and a little later in Caen , Trieste , Beirut , Colombo , Karachi , Smyrna , Saloniki , Tripoli , Alexandria and Trebizond . In October 1884 his agency network had 35 branches, seven of which were in Switzerland. From the beginning, Neue Schweizerischer Lloyd joined the Commodities and Valor Convention, a cartel .
Premium income rose steadily and reached its first peak in 1895 at CHF 2,385,631. Of the six Swiss transport insurers, Neue Schweizerischer Lloyd, with a seventh market share, only achieved the penultimate place. Since society was very much out on excursus, the tariff premiums were not always sufficient. In 1895 the company posted a loss for the second time (after 1892). Due to the bad developments and the unstoppable losses, at the end of 1896 the then director, R. Panten, was asked whether it would not be appropriate to dissolve the company. He did not believe that society could get back on the road to success. After careful consideration, however, the board of directors decided in the spring of 1897 to carefully examine the other options and preferred an expansion to other business areas, possibly with another insurer.
From Transport to Multi-Line Insurer (May 3, 1898)
As easy as it sounded to make money in other insurance sectors, it was just as difficult to implement. Due to the separation of lines , the different life insurance business away in advance. The second largest industry, accident insurance , also did not promise a great profit situation, as at that time it mainly consisted of workers' compensation insurance . The third largest branch, fire insurance , consisted of compulsory business, which in most regions was controlled by state institutions. The livestock and hail insurance for the Winterthur merchants was also eliminated for understandable reasons. That leaves the liability , glass and burglary / theft business. All insurances with which the Swiss Lloyd had no experience.
When looking through the various options, the board of directors soon proposed a cooperation with a large reinsurer . The reinsurers endeavored to bind the direct insurers to themselves in order to secure their reinsurance premium. Cooperation with Swiss Re was ruled out, however, as it did not want to give preference to a Swiss client in order not to endanger its position of trust. The director started talking to Carl von Thieme , the initiator and co-founder of the Munich Reinsurance Company, which was established in 1880 . In order to reduce its risks, it had founded an insurance company for transport, accident and liability insurance - Allianz . Carl von Thieme was interested in the idea and so from October 1897 various concepts were developed. Munich Re wanted to secure as many reinsurance aliments from New Swiss Lloyd as possible and was prepared to take a stake of up to 50 percent in the capital. The Swiss company strove to remain independent, but wanted to acquire the lack of know-how and collect more bonuses. On April 21, 1898, a pragmatic solution was found in Munich :
It was decided, subject to the approval of the responsible bodies, that the share capital should be increased from CHF 4 million to CHF 5 million. The newly issued shares were to be taken over by the German reinsurer at par . This idea was finally abandoned because it was noticed that the Munich Reinsurance Company could more easily build up its stake on the stock exchange .
Another requirement of the reinsurer from Munich was that the company headquarters had to be relocated to Basel and that the name of Neuer Schweizerischer Lloyd had to be changed. According to the minutes of the board meeting, on May 5, 1898, Carl von Thieme himself is said to have called the name "National Insurance Company". Finally, at the General Assembly on June 28, 1898, the company name "Swiss National Insurance Company" was decided. It was also agreed that von Thieme should have a seat on the board of directors.
The first years of the National in Basel (1898–1904)
Following the request, the National moved to Basel on October 1, 1898 to Aeschenvorstadt 5 and 7. Later the headquarters of the Swiss Bank Corporation was located at this location . Since the rented space was only available temporarily, the board of directors decided on February 10, 1899 to purchase a building of its own at Steinengraben 39. The general assembly approved this project on June 6, 1899. Just three years later, in October 1902, the board of directors was discussing a conversion and extension, which was ready for occupancy a year later.
National's premium income increased significantly in these years. In 1898 they were CHF 1.1 million gross, in 1904 they were already CHF 4.2 million. As a result of this business development, the responsible supervisory authority demanded another increase in the guarantee funds. However, those in charge of the National saw it differently and tried to persuade the authorities to renounce it. However, this remained tough and exerted pressure in November 1903 by making the renewal of the concession dependent on the capital increase. The Board of Directors had no choice but to meet this requirement, as otherwise the insurance business would have had to be dissolved. However, in return, he was able to obtain the license for fire reinsurance.
At the general assembly on June 28, 1904, the general assembly resolved the necessary capital increase. Since no shareholder wanted to take over the shares, the Board of Directors announced that Munich Reinsurance Company would take over the part of the increase at par. Although this step had a positive effect on the share price, Munich Re now already held 45.5% of the total share capital. In order to protect itself from surprises, the National had included a passage in the statutes (§ 15, today Art. 38), which still exists today. This stipulates that a single shareholder is limited to one fifth of the total votes represented at the General Meeting.
The development up to the First World War (1904–1914)
As expected, sales increased due to the capital increase in 1904. The general upturn in insurance business and the entry into American fire reinsurance business in 1906 also contributed to this. A quarter of a century after the company was founded (1908), gross premium income exceeded the 10 million mark and in 1914 the 20 million mark. The portfolio consisted of 66% fire reinsurance business, 21% marine business and the remaining 13% from seven different branches. In Switzerland, only CHF 0.8 million in premiums were booked. This means that only 4.1% was generated from direct domestic business. The National was thus primarily an international insurer and thus heavily dependent on foreign countries. The company had a highly diversified policy and began to insure motor vehicles with machine insurance in 1906 . However, they stopped this business for the time being in 1912 due to unsatisfactory results. As an actual pioneering act, National launched flood damage insurance in 1914 in close cooperation with the Munich Reinsurance Company . However, as this was voluntary, insurance policies were almost only taken out in endangered areas. Thus the experiment was stopped after a few years. The last contract expired in 1925.
Despite these numerous attempts, the company was able to gain a foothold and profits kept rising. The dividend could be increased from the beginning of 5% to 18% on the eve of the First World War . During this time there were also extraordinary events, such as the earthquake in San Francisco in 1906, when the company was active as a fire reinsurer.
The National during the First World War (1914–1918)
With the beginning of the First World War, a four-decade-long period of economic prosperity in Europe came to an end. With the war, trade was severely restricted and these blockades reduced international transports. The trade war with submarines that began in 1916 turned out to be decisive for the insurance industry. On the other hand, the insurance premiums rose due to the risk of war, which meant that there was no loss of premiums for the National. Sales even increased thanks to the expansion of the business to the United States, which was not yet at war . The French authorities got the National in trouble from 1916. The company was classified as foreign due to the major shareholder Münchener Rückversicherungs-Gesellschaft and because one of the two directors was a German and thus put on the blacklist . Their acquisitions were thus prevented in France.
When the United States entered the war on April 4, 1917, North American business also fell into distress. There, too, the National was blacklisted and the US authorities placed the American business under Sequester at the beginning of 1918 , which in this financial year resulted in a halving of total premiums (from a gross CHF 28.1 million to CHF 14.1 million CHF).
Although the National tried to have the seizure of the assets lifted, this process dragged on well into the interwar period . The first advance payments were received in 1926, a larger part was released at the end of the 1920s and further payments followed in the 1930s. A part never came back at all.
The National during the Second World War (1939–1945)
After Germany declared war on Poland on September 1, 1939 , it was clear that a European conflict had sparked. As early as October 1939, National agreed that the French and British transport business would no longer be reinsured retrospectively from January 1, 1939 via the Münchner Rückversicherungs-Gesellschaft and Allianz, but via Swiss companies. But this process was of no avail, because on April 4, 1940, the French authorities prohibited the National from all activities and on April 21, 1940 put the company on the “list noire”. Two days later the company was put on the British “black list”.
Post-war period until 2015
After the SBG had appointed the chairman of the board of directors and temporarily a second member of the board of directors until 1995 and the vice- chairman from 1995, the UBS , which had emerged from the SBG, dissolved its more than 100-year stake in the Swiss National Insurance Company in 1999 as part of its reorientation.
In 2002 the Swiss National Insurance Company took over Coop Life Insurance. As part of a strategic realignment, the Swiss National Insurance Company has been operating under the brand name Nationale Suisse since September 2006 .
At the beginning of 2011, the Swiss National Insurance Company sold the group life business to Swiss Life.
On July 7, 2014, Helvetia and Nationale Suisse announced that they would join forces. Helvetia paid CHF 52 in cash for each outstanding Nationale Suisse share and 0.0680 Helvetia shares for each Nationale Suisse share. Helvetia's takeover offer came about on October 20, 2014. The Swiss National Insurance Company AG, the parent company of Nationale Suisse, was merged with Helvetia Swiss Insurance Company AG at the beginning of May 2015 and deleted from the commercial register. Accordingly, the Nationale Suisse brand disappeared from the market. The shares of the parent company of Nationale Suisse were delisted from the SIX Swiss Exchange.
Trivia
Between 2007 and 2014 Roger Federer was the advertising ambassador for Nationale Suisse.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Entry in the commercial register of the Canton of Basel-Stadt ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ a b c Annual Report 2011
- ↑ Commercial Register of the Canton of Zurich. (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on December 31, 2015 ; Retrieved April 25, 2010 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ^ Annual report 2011 of the Europäische Reiseversicherungs AG. Retrieved June 5, 2012 .
- ^ Nationale Suisse - the art lovers
- ^ The Swiss National Insurance Company - On the history of the company
- ↑ The Swiss National Insurance Company - partner cooperation sponsoring partner
