Insurance giant off to a fresh start
Posted by meb at August 27th, 2008
Zurich Financial Services, which purchased Turkish general insurer TEB Sigorta at the beginning of the year, has finalized a campaign to promote the name change as of yesterday. The company will operate in Turkey as “Zurich Sigorta” from now on.
“We are an insurance company whose aim is not to follow the market, but to lead the market in every country that we operate. We also aim for permanent, consistent and a high level of profitability,” Lutz Bauer, Zurich Financial Services Central and Eastern Europe chief executive, told members of the press in Istanbul yesterday.
“TEB Sigorta is a dynamic, creative, young and promising firm. That is why we chose to acquire it in our entry into the Turkish market,” he said.
“As Zurich Sigorta, we are looking into catching an aggressive growth trend in Turkey’s insurance market,” said Ertuğrul Bul, general manager of Zurich Sigorta. “This acquisition will bring dynamism to Turkey’s market when Zurich Financial Services’ global knowledge and the local experience of TEB Sigorta are combined.”
Yapı Kredi an issue of privacy
Responding to a question on whether Zurich Financial Services is looking forward to buying another Turkish insurer Yapı Kredi Sigorta, whose market value is more than $1 billion, “This issue is subject to our privacy,” said Bauer.
However, he also said the company was interested in acquisitions, saying they had the potential to create added value and contribute to operations in Turkey’s market.
“Our primary aim is profitability,” said Bauer. “We work on maintaining our profitability rate above 16 percent.”
Zurich Financial Services, the world’s fourth largest insurance company, operates in 170 countries. While the market value of the company is $43 billion, it has a portfolio worth $73 billion. The company’s net profit totaled $5.6 billion last year.
TEB Sigorta, founded in 1997, grew 34 percent last year and was the most rapidly growing insurance company in Turkey. The company had assets worth $153.5 million last year and issued 448,320 policies.
source: Turkish Daily News
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