Property/Casualty Primary Insurance
Key figures: Property/Casualty Primary Insurance 1)
| 2008 | 20072) | 2006 | 2005 | 2004 |
Figures in EUR million |
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Gross written premium | 5,896 | 5,984 | 5,632 | 3,507 | 5,383 |
Net premium earned | 3,864 | 3,683 | 3,783 | 2,116 | 2,361 |
Underwriting result | 135 | –39 | 207 | 184 | –13 |
Net investment income | 342 | 481 | 389 | 225 | 245 |
Operating result (EBIT) | 258 | 235 | 339 | 340 | 104 |
Combined ratio (net) in % | 95.3 3) | 100.1 3) | 92.7 3) | 91.3 | 100.6 |
2) Adjusted on the basis of IAS 8 3) Excluding life insurance business of the Italian subsidiary | |||||
With an eye to its competition with other insurers, the goals of the largest Talanx Group segment for 2008 were consolidation of the market position and selective expansion in target markets of the HDI-Gerling Property & Casualty Group. These goals were broadly accomplished.
The HDI-Gerling Property & Casualty Group is headed by HDI-Gerling Sach Serviceholding AG. Its subsidiaries HDI-Gerling Industrie Versicherung AG, HDI-Gerling Firmen und Privat Versicherung AG, HDI Direkt Versicherung AG and HDI-Gerling International Holding AG each operate, for their part, with subsidiaries and branches at home and abroad in the market segments of commercial/private customer business and industrial insurance business.
The integration of the Gerling companies and hence one of the largest takeovers in the German insurance market was officially completed in 2008. Remaining tasks will be finalized in the course of normal day-to-day business activities.
The synergies planned for the HDI-Gerling Property & Casualty Group were accomplished to a level in excess of 95% by the end of the year under review. Although around 1,000 jobs were eliminated in Germany, fewer than 300 employees received termination notices. Prior to termination all members of staff were offered a job within the Group at another location. 250 former Cologne-based personnel took up the offer of a job in Hannover.
A particularly telling gauge of a successfully completed integration is the development of business with customers of the formerly separate corporate groups. Despite certain overlaps – especially in industrial business – between the customer portfolios of the two long-established HDI and Gerling brands, the new HDI-Gerling organization forfeited less than 10% of its premium volume for integration-related reasons during the almost three-year integration phase.