Swiss Re to Sell iptiQ European P&C Business to Allianz Direct, Expanding B2B2C Presence Across Europe

Swiss Re to Sell iptiQ European P&C Business to Allianz Direct, Expanding B2B2C Presence Across Europe

(IN BRIEF) Swiss Re is selling its iptiQ European P&C business to Allianz Direct, including its Luxembourg-based risk carrier, over 100 employees, and existing distribution agreements in several European markets. This move aligns with Swiss Re’s strategy to exit iptiQ, while Allianz Direct will gain a stronger presence in the B2B2C segment with over 130,000 new customers. The transaction is set to complete by mid-2025, pending regulatory approvals.

(PRESS RELEASE) ZURICH, 5-Nov-2024 — /EuropaWire/ — Swiss Re has agreed to sell its iptiQ European Property & Casualty (P&C) business to Allianz Direct, marking a strategic step as Swiss Re exits its involvement with iptiQ. The transaction, expected to close by Q2/Q3 2025 pending regulatory approval, includes the transfer of Luxembourg-based risk carrier iptiQ EMEA P&C S.A., over 100 employees across five European countries, and all existing distribution agreements.

iptiQ, a digital insurer providing B2B2C insurance solutions through partnerships, is shifting ownership to Allianz Direct, the Allianz Group’s pan-European online insurer. This acquisition will strengthen Allianz Direct’s position in the B2B2C market, adding more than 130,000 iptiQ customers and enhancing its distribution capabilities.

Jef Van In, CEO of iptiQ, expressed satisfaction with finding a new owner for the European P&C business, ensuring continuity for stakeholders. Allianz Direct CEO Philipp Kroetz highlighted the acquisition’s role in expanding Allianz’s reach in key European markets, noting the combined platform’s potential to enhance competitive offerings and support business partners.

About Swiss Re
The Swiss Re Group is one of the world’s leading providers of reinsurance, insurance and other forms of insurance-based risk transfer, working to make the world more resilient. It anticipates and manages risk – from natural catastrophes to climate change, from ageing populations to cyber crime. The aim of the Swiss Re Group is to enable society to thrive and progress, creating new opportunities and solutions for its clients. Headquartered in Zurich, Switzerland, where it was founded in 1863, the Swiss Re Group operates through a network of around 80 offices globally.

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Certain statements and illustrations contained herein are forward-looking. These statements (including as to plans, objectives, targets, and trends) and illustrations provide current expectations of future events based on certain assumptions and include any statement that
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operations, financial condition, solvency ratios, capital or liquidity positions or prospects to be materially different from any future results of operations, financial condition, solvency ratios, capital or liquidity positions or prospects expressed or implied by such statements or cause the Group to not achieve its published targets.

Such factors include, among others:
• macro-economic events or developments including increased volatility of, and/or disruption in, global capital, credit, foreign exchange and other markets and their impact on the respective prices, interest and exchange rates and other benchmarks of such markets, and historically high inflation rates;
• the frequency, severity and development of, and losses associated with, insured claim events, particularly natural catastrophes, man-made disasters, pandemics, social inflation litigation, acts of terrorism or acts of war, including the ongoing war in Ukraine, and any associated governmental and other measures such as sanctions, expropriations and seizures of assets as well as the economic consequences of the foregoing;
• the Group’s ability to comply with standards related to environmental, social and governance (“ESG”), sustainability and corporate social responsibility (“CSR”) matters and to fully achieve goals, targets, or ambitions related to such matters;
• the Group’s ability to achieve its strategic objectives;
• legal actions or regulatory investigations or actions, including in respect of industry requirements or business conduct rules of general applicability, the intensity and frequency of which may also increase as a result of social inflation;
• central bank intervention in the financial markets, trade wars or other protectionist measures relating to international trade arrangements, adverse geopolitical events, domestic political upheavals or other developments that adversely impact global
economic conditions;
• mortality, morbidity and longevity experience;
• the cyclicality of the reinsurance sector;
• the Group’s ability to maintain sufficient liquidity and access to capital markets, including sufficient liquidity to cover potential recapture of reinsurance agreements, early calls of debt or debt-like arrangements and collateral calls due to actual or perceived deterioration of the Group’s financial strength or otherwise;
• the Group’s inability to realise amounts on sales of securities on the Group’s balance sheet equivalent to their values recorded for accounting purposes;
• the Group’s inability to generate sufficient investment income from its investment portfolio, including as a result of fluctuations in the equity and fixed income markets, the composition of the investment portfolio or otherwise;
• changes in legislation and regulation or the interpretations thereof by regulators and courts, affecting the Group or its ceding companies, including as a result of comprehensive reform or shifts away from multilateral approaches to regulation of global operations;
• matters negatively affecting the reputation of the Group, its board of directors or its management;
• the lowering, loss or giving up of one of the financial strength or other ratings of one or more companies in the Group, and developments adversely affecting its ability to achieve
improved ratings;
• uncertainties in estimating reserves, including differences between actual claims experience and underwriting and reserving assumptions, in particular in Property & Casualty Reinsurance due to higher costs caused by inflation and supply chain issues;
• policy renewal and lapse rates;
• the outcome of tax audits, the ability to realise tax loss carryforwards and the ability to realise deferred tax assets (including by reason of the mix of earnings in a jurisdiction or deemed change of control), which could negatively impact future earnings, and the overall impact of changes in tax regimes on the Group’s business model;
• changes in accounting estimates or assumptions that affect reported amounts of assets, liabilities, revenues or expenses, including contingent assets and liabilities as well as changes in accounting standards, practices or policies;
• strengthening or weakening of foreign currencies;
• reforms of, or other potential changes to, benchmark reference rates; failure of the Group’s hedging arrangements to be effective;
• significant investments, acquisitions or dispositions, and any delays, unforeseen liabilities or other costs, lower-than-expected benefits, impairments, ratings action or other issues experienced in connection with any such transactions;
• extraordinary events affecting the Group’s clients and other counterparties, such as bankruptcies, liquidations and other credit-related events;
• changing levels of competition;
• the effects of business disruption due to terrorist attacks, cyberattacks, natural catastrophes, public health emergencies, hostilities or other events;
• limitations on the ability of the Group’s subsidiaries to pay dividends or make other distributions; and
• operational factors, including the efficacy of risk management and other internal procedures in anticipating and managing the foregoing risks.

These factors are not exhaustive. The Group operates in a continually changing environment and new risks emerge continually. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. Swiss Re undertakes no obligation to publicly revise or update any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

This communication is not intended to be a recommendation to buy, sell or hold securities and does not constitute an offer for the sale of, or the solicitation of an offer to buy, securities in any jurisdiction, including the United States. Any such offer will only be made by means of a prospectus or offering memorandum, and in compliance with applicable securities laws.

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SOURCE: Swiss Re