Allianz Holds 92.18% of AGF; to Launch ‘Squeeze-out;’ IT Consolidation

Germany’s Allianz SE (Societas Europaea) announced that upon the closing of the tender offer for the outstanding shares of its French subsidiary AGF, it will hold (directly and through its subsidiary Allianz Holding France SAS) 178,030,698 shares – representing 92.18 percent of AGF’s share capital and voting rights.

Allianz has officially listed the share acquisition with the French stock market authority Autorité des Marchés Financiers (AMF). The total acquired includes 6,199,392 treasury shares held by AGF, representing 3.21 percent of the share capital. As a result minority shareholders hold 8,895,695 shares representing 4.61 percent, i.e. less than five percent.

Allianz had already indicated in the tender offer document that it “intends to launch a squeeze-out procedure pursuant to the conditions set forth in the General Regulations of the AMF.” It will announce the terms of the squeeze-out and the consideration to be paid minority shareholders soon.

“The success of this offer is another step towards the implementation of our strategy to simplify group structures and thereby improve competitive positions, which is also in the interest of our customers”, commented Paul Achleitner, member of the board of Allianz SE.

In a separate announcement on the Group’s web site (www.allianz. com) Allianz said that over the next three years, “the IT infrastructure entities of Allianz local subsidiaries throughout Western Europe will be integrated step-by-step into ASIC (Allianz Shared Infrastructure Services) which starts operations on July 1, 2007. With this, Allianz aims to further improve service quality, as well as IT security.

The site offers an interview with Friedrich Wöbking, chairman of Allianz’s international IT Committee, who is responsible for the preparation and implementation of this project.

Topics Allianz