Zurich Acquires German Insurer

The Zurich Financial Services Group announced that its subsidiary, Zürich Beteiligungs-AG (Deutschland), has agreed to acquire 100 percent of the private accident insurer Baden-Badener Versicherung AG.

Zurich said the purchase of the privately owned Company would be retroactive as of January 1, 2008. “The parties have agreed not to disclose the purchase price,” the bulletin added. “The transaction is expected to close in the third quarter 2008. The German financial supervisory and antitrust authorities have already given their approval.”

Zurich noted that Baden-Badener was founded in 1991, and is a “specialized provider of private accident insurance in Germany with a premium volume of €45 million [$70 million] in 2007. Baden-Badener, headquartered in Sankt Ingbert (Saarland), has 80 employees and exclusively offers its products over a network of over 8700 private customer brokers across Germany.”

It currently has a 15 percent market share in its specialized distribution channel. Zurich said the acquisition would provide it provides it with access to the “attractive German private customer broker niche market. The transaction represents the Group’s 6th acquisition since the beginning of 2008.”

Annette Court, Zurich’s CEO Europe General Insurance, added: “I’m delighted that we have been able to secure another carefully targeted acquisition in line with our strategy. We look forward to bringing Zurich’s strengths to meet the needs of those customers already well served by Baden-Badener in pursuit of profitable growth.”

Source: Zurich – www.zurich.com