Provincial NorthWest

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Provinzial NordWest Holding Aktiengesellschaft

logo
legal form Corporation
founding 1722 as a Provincial Fire Society
Seat Muenster
management Wolfgang Breuer ( Chairman of the Board of Management )
Liane Buchholz ( Chairman of the Supervisory Board )
Number of employees 6,200 ( 2014 )
sales 3.90 billion euros ( gross premiums written in 2014 )
Branch Insurance
financial services
Website www.provinzial-nordwest.de

The administration building in the Münster children's home
Business areas of the public insurers in Germany

The provincial NorthWest is the second largest public insurance group in Germany. It emerged from the merger of Westfälische Provinzial ( Münster ) with Provinzial Nord ( Kiel ). The total premium income in 2014 amounted to almost 4 billion euros. The insurance group has 500 branches in Westphalia and over 200 branches in Schleswig-Holstein and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania with a good 3 million customers.

owner

The parent company is Provinzial NordWest Holding Aktiengesellschaft (PNWH) based in Münster, which arose from the merger of Provinzial Holding Westfalen and Provinzial Nord Holding AG .

The owners of PNWH are the Savings Banks Association Westphalia-Lippe (SVWL) and the Regional Association Westphalia-Lippe each with 40 percent, the Savings Banks and Giro Association for Schleswig-Holstein (SGVSH) with 18 percent and the East German Savings Bank Association (OSV) with 2 percent.

Business area

Provinzial NordWest sells insurance in the business areas of the predecessor companies. This includes the Westphalia-Lippe region (excluding Lippe), Schleswig-Holstein, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and Hamburg.

Operational insurance companies

The primary insurance companies operate under the umbrella of the control holding company

as a non-listed stock corporation, the operational insurance business. All five companies are 100 percent subsidiaries of PNWH.

The previous regional property and casualty insurers WPV, PNB and HFK were retained with their established brands in the course of the merger of the predecessor insurance groups .

The life insurance business is operated by PNWL, which emerged from the merger of Westfälische Provinzial Lebensversicherung Aktiengesellschaft (Münster) and Provinzial Nord Lebensversicherung (Kiel). The merged life insurer is based in Kiel.

In 2019, Provinzial NordWest founded the digital commercial insurer andsafe in the form of a stock corporation. andsafe is a 100 percent subsidiary of PNWH and an independent risk carrier in the group.

Collaboration and collaborations

For several years, Provinzial NordWest cooperated with SV SparkassenVersicherung from Stuttgart in the field of asset management and data processing . However, the cooperation between the two public insurance groups has now ended. VersAM Versicherungs-Assetmanagement GmbH , which was founded on January 1, 2007 and is based in Münster, in which Provinzial held 51% and SV 49%, was liquidated at the beginning of 2012. The IT collaboration had already ended on September 30, 2008. From 2003 to 2014, PNW held a 23 percent stake in GaVI (Society for Applied Insurance Informatics ), which was responsible for maintaining the technical systems and networks. As of December 31, 2014, the company dissolved and GaVI was returned to the Provinzial NordWest Group.

Defense of the takeover plans by Allianz

Works council chairman Albert Roer at the head of the protest movement against the sale of the Provinzial

The Financial Times Deutschland (FTD) reported on November 30, 2012 that Allianz Germany had made the owners of Provinzial an offer to take over the insurance group. The purchase price was named as 2.25 billion euros. Allianz boss Michael Diekmann had the initially secret negotiations on the so-called "Rheingold" operation with Rolf Gerlach (SVWL), Wolfgang Kirsch (LWL) and Reinhard Boll (SGVSH) in several meetings in Münster and Munich . Kirsch's half-hearted denial of November 30th ("We are not currently planning to sell our shares in Provinzial Nordwest") was interpreted as a request to Allianz to raise the price again. As early as December 3, 2012, the FTD reported that Allianz was ready to "pay significantly more than the initially offered book value of 2.25 billion euros."

The takeover plans hit the workforce like a bomb and led to great uncertainty. It was feared that the majority of the company's jobs would be at risk after a takeover. The industry service map-report suspected that Allianz's intention to buy was ultimately a “murder attack on the entire savings bank sector ”. The assault on board spokesman Ulrich Rüther, which became known immediately before an extraordinary works meeting on December 5, 2012, caused a lot of waves. He was allegedly injured in the chest by an unknown person with six stitches with a phase tester on the way from the underground car park to the office . The attack was only faked by Rüther, the background remains unclear. In the days that followed, the works council, the Verdi union and the workforce organized an unprecedented campaign to use public pressure to influence politics and elected officials in the relevant bodies. There were great solidarity campaigns between the population and their regional insurer, more than 150,000 signatures against the sale were obtained, and more than 20,000 supporters joined an online petition.

Employee protest march to the rally in front of the state house

Under public pressure, leading local and state politicians intervened in the discussion. Some elected officials like Hammer Mayor Thomas Hunsteger-Petermann , chairman of the board of directors of Sparkasse Hamm and member of the board of directors of the Sparkassenverband Westfalen-Lippe, vented their displeasure at the clandestine discussions about the sale of public property. The district administrators Konrad Püning ( Coesfeld district ) and Kai Zwicker ( Borken ) spoke out against selling the Provinzial.

In an interview to the NRW - Prime Minister Hannelore Kraft , the owner of the provincial NorthWest and the Provincial Rhineland in the December 10, Düsseldorf State had loaded, a new option was considered merger of the two public insurers incorporated into the considerations. A possible merger should be decided by March 31, 2013. Until then, discussions with other bidders were suspended. In return, Sparkasse President Gerlach, who has been aiming at the formation of larger units with public insurers for years, averted the already decided forced merger of the savings bank associations from Westphalia-Lippe and the Rhineland. On the evening of December 10, there was a first demonstration by around 500 employees on the occasion of a benefit concert by the savings banks in front of the city theater in Münster, especially since resumption of sales negotiations with private investors was not categorically ruled out when this moratorium expired.

The Kiel state parliament discussed the possible sale of the Provinzial NordWest in a current hour on December 12th . Accompanied by an employee demonstration in front of the building of the Sparkassenverband, the north German savings banks, which are part of the SGVSH , rowed back on the same day after top representatives of the savings banks had shortly before described a sale as "without alternative".

Prominent support at the rally in front of the Landeshaus by Karl-Josef Laumann (CDU) and Guntram Schneider (SPD)

Two days later, on December 14, 2012, the Landschaftsverband Westfalen-Lippe (LWL), as the second owner , also spoke out against the sale of its Provinzial shares (also beyond March 31, 2013). Shortly before, the meeting templates for the responsible main committee had been changed across factions against the will of LWL director Kirsch, who wanted to negotiate openly. There was a scandal when Kirsch surrendered in insults. Several thousand provincial employees had pulled out in a demonstration by the provincial in front of the conference building to hand over the more than 150,000 signatures that had been collected against the sale. However, Kirsch refused to accept and did not appear.

Only the Sparkassenverband Westfalen-Lippe has made a clear commitment to the long-term maintenance of the Provinzial NordWest under public ownership. President Gerlach wants to keep one put option open. However, u. a. with the Sparkasse Münsterland Ost , Sparkasse Hamm and Sparkasse Westmünsterland some well-known institutes openly positioned against their president.

On December 21, 2012, at an extraordinary meeting of the Supervisory Board called by the employee representatives, the signatures against the sale were finally handed over to Rolf Gerlach and Wolfgang Kirsch. The day before, a handover at a demonstration in front of the building of the Sparkassenverband Westfalen-Lippe had failed because the meeting had been moved to Bochum at short notice. The supervisory board has "by a majority condemned the attitude of the Sparkassenverband Westfalen-Lippe and its president to a possible sale of the company to a private investor"; Gerlach voted against the decision.

On January 7, 2013, the supervisory board initially confirmed Ulrich Rüther as chairman of the board of Provinzial NordWest. However, in the summer of 2014 it became known that Rüther's contract, which expired at the end of the year, would not be extended. On October 22, 2014, the supervisory board unanimously appointed Wolfgang Breuer, who had previously worked for Württembergische Versicherung , to succeed Rüther . In return, the savings bank side now fully committed itself to the public mandate of the Provinzial, which the workforce and the works council had been demanding for a long time. The supervisory body also decided to prematurely end the cooperation with CFO Lüxmann-Ellinghaus on March 31, 2015 due to “differing views on future business policy”. Ulrich Scholten, who until then worked for the Roland insurance group, will succeed him as head of department . A commitment to the public mission of the Provinzial NordWest had previously been made by the red-green state government of North Rhine-Westphalia .

Efforts to merge with the Provinzial Rheinland

On September 4, 2018, the shareholders of the two provincial insurers in Münster and Düsseldorf made a joint declaration on a possible merger. According to a concept paper known as the Memorandum of Understanding , Münster is intended to be the headquarters of the joint holding company, the merged property and accident insurer will be based in Düsseldorf, and the Provinzial Nord Brandkasse and the merged life insurer of the group will operate the insurance business from the Kiel location. On February 25, 2020, the companies announced that the top of the shareholders had reached a fundamental economic agreement on the merger of the two insurance groups. Subject to the pending approval of the shareholder committees and the two companies, the merger is to be completed retrospectively as of January 1, 2020.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Facts and Figures 2013. (PDF; 3.7 MB) Retrieved on May 1, 2013 .
  2. ↑ History | PNW group portal. Retrieved February 25, 2020 .
  3. ↑ andsafe and BANKSapi win Diamond Star Award. In: Pfefferminzia.de. November 7, 2019, accessed on February 25, 2020 (German).
  4. ↑ Provinzial NordWest and SV SparkassenVersicherung will go their own way when it comes to investing after a successful collaboration. (PDF; 46 kB) September 27, 2011, accessed on May 1, 2013 (press release).
  5. ↑ IT cooperation stopped. Provinzial NordWest, September 23, 2008, accessed on May 1, 2009 (press release).
  6. ↑ Herbert Fromme et al. Meike Schreiber: Offer: Allianz wants to buy Provinzial Nordwest. Financial Times Deutschland, November 30, 2012, archived from the original on January 18, 2013 ; Retrieved May 1, 2013 .
  7. ↑ a b c d Herbert Fromme u. Meike Schreiber: Planned takeover: The search for the Rheingold. Financial Times Deutschland, December 3, 2012, archived from the original on December 7, 2012 ; Retrieved May 1, 2013 .
  8. ^ Westfälische Nachrichten of December 3, 2012
  9. ↑ Handelsblatt online edition of December 12, 2012 3:47 p.m.
  10. ↑ map-fax No. 49/12 of December 7, 2012.
  11. ↑ Unknown injured Provincial Manager by stitches, N24 dated December 5, 2012  ( 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.@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.n24.de  
  12. ↑ RP-Online of December 12, 2012
  13. ↑ Westfälischer Anzeiger of December 8, 2012: "Guardian Angel" in need: Provincial before sale? - Hammer OB Hunsteger-Petermann angry
  14. ↑ Westfälische Nachrichten of December 10, 2012: District administrators demand an immediate halt to the talks
  15. ^ Westfälische Nachrichten of December 10, 2012: Provincial sales put on hold.
  16. ^ Münstersche Zeitung of December 17, 2012: Consideration for Provincial - Savings Bank Associations do not have to merge.
  17. ↑ Westfälische Nachrichten of December 10, 2012: Demonstration on the sidelines of the Sparkasse charity gala
  18. ↑ Kieler Nachrichten of December 10th, 2012: Tug of war for provincial also topic in the state parliament  ( 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.@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.kn-online.de  
  19. ↑ Kieler Nachrichten of December 12, 2012: 2000 employees on the street - hot protest against the provincial sale.
  20. ^ Münstersche Zeitung of December 12, 2012: Schleswig-Holstein vetoed provincial sale
  21. ↑ Kieler Nachrichten of December 10, 2012: Savings banks fear emergency
  22. ↑ Westfälische Nachrichten of December 14, 2012: Clear vote of the landscape committee - unanimous no from politics to the provincial sale
  23. ↑ Münstersche Zeitung of December 14, 2012: Thousands demonstrate for the provincial preservation  ( 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.@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / www.muensterschezeitung.de  
  24. ↑ Westfälische Nachrichten of December 14, 2012: Sparkasse President Gerlach as bogeyman at provincial demonstration
  25. ^ Münstersche Zeitung of December 19, 2012: Sparkassen keep provincial sales open
  26. ^ Westfälische Nachrichten of December 10, 2012: Sparkasse Münsterland Ost against sale of the Provinzial NordWest
  27. ↑ a b Westfälischer Anzeiger dated December 20, 2012: Assault against provincial sales - workforce hands over 150,000 signatures
  28. ^ General newspaper (Coesfeld) . December 24, 2012.
  29. ↑ Westfälische Nachrichten of December 22, 2012: Employees finally hand over their signatures to Gerlach and Kirsch
  30. ↑ Münstersche Zeitung of December 27, 2012: The supervisory board is clearly against the provincial sale ( memento of the original from October 31, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.muensterschezeitung.de
  31. ^ Handelsblatt dated January 7, 2013: Provincial boss Rüther remains in office
  32. ^ Press release from Provinzial NordWest from October 22, 2014: Personnel changes on the board of the Provinzial NordWest Group
  33. ↑ Landtag printed paper 16/6043 of June 5, 2014.
  34. ↑ Land certifies Provincial a “public contract”. ( Memento of the original from October 31, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. In: Münstersche Zeitung. June 11, 2014. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.muensterschezeitung.de
  35. ^ Joint statement by the shareholders of Provinzial Rheinland Insurance and the Provinzial NordWest Group , accessed on September 4, 2018
  36. ^ Press release of Provinzial NordWest from February 25, 2020: Merger of Provinzial Rheinland and Provinzial NordWest , accessed on February 25, 2020 ( PDF )

Web links

Commons : Provinzial NordWest  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Coordinates: 51 ° 59 ′ 27 ″  N , 7 ° 37 ′ 15 ″  E