Groupama joins forces with two insurers
Posted by meb at October 19th, 2009
Groupama, a leading European insurance, banking and financial services group, has decided to join forces with Turkey’s Başak Sigorta and Güven Sigorta under one brand in an attempt to expand operations in Turkey.
Becoming the third-largest insurance company, Groupama now aims to continue an ambitious investment plan with its Turkish branch. It announced last week the launch of “Groupama Sigorta” and “Groupama Emeklilik,” by merging Başak and Güven insurance companies. Groupama acquired Başak Sigorta and Başak Emeklilik in 2006 and Güven Sigorta and Güven Hayat in 2008.
“We joined two strong rooted companies’ forces by bringing local and international expertise together. With this merger, our clients will benefit from a strong service offering, an innovative product proposition and the strength of one of the leading international insurance companies, which already proved itself to more than 16 million customers all over the world,” said Jean-Francois Lemoux, international general manager of Groupama.
“Turkey, with its growth potential, has a strategic importance for Groupama, as it is a role model country within the group. The exciting dynamics of the market in Turkey is encouraging for us,” he said.
Targets of the group
Groupama will continue providing a competitive range of life and pension, household, liability, agricultural and motor products insurance, specially tailored to the needs of both retail and corporate customers, according to company statement. Groupama ranks second in life insurance and fifth in the non-life market with total revenues of 1.07 billion Turkish Liras (562 million euros), at the end of 2008. The new group will continue to be close to its 3 million customers with the support of more than 2,000 agents, 900 employees and partnerships all over Turkey.
The company aims to reach $1.5 billion in revenues and continues to have higher growth rates than the expanding insurance market in Turkey over the next three years.
To achieve these ambitious goals, Groupama is launching a new concept “Insurance+,” which is expected to be a milestone in the insurance market.
“We are not launching a campaign,” said Alain Baudry, Groupama Insurance general manager. “We are bringing an innovative and dynamic approach in order to provide maximum satisfaction and a strong commitment to our customers, enabling us to stay closer to them. We strongly believe that “Insurance+” will bring new dimensions to insurance in Turkey.”
“Insurance+” will cover car and household insurance services as a start. As an example, for car insurance, after the accident dossier is completed, the payment will be done within five days. If this is not the case, until the end of the year, Groupama will provide a one-year free insurance to the customer. New cars insured with Groupama will be covered with the new value of the car during three years in case of total pert and theft losses.
The new brand, Groupama, will be supported by a comprehensive campaign that will include advertising, public relations and corporate responsibility programs.
Turkey is the group’s third largest partnership in terms of turnover, reported Anatolia news agency, citing Lemoux. Regarding Güneş Sigorta, through which the group entered Turkey 18 years ago, he said: “We do not manage the company at present. If Vakıfbank decides to sell it one day, we are open to it.”
Groupama is present in 13 countries in Europe and Asia, including Italy, Spain, Britain, Portugal, Turkey, Greece, Hungary, Romania, Slovakia, Bulgaria, China and Vietnam.
source: Hurriyet daily news
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