Through a series of measures such as acquiring domestic insurance companies and establishing and improving sales networks, Allianz quickly became a leader in the German insurance industry and actively sought external development. In 1893, Allianz opened its first overseas branch in London, England. By 1913, one-fifth of Allianz's premium income came from countries other than Germany.
After the end of World War I, Allianz began to develop life insurance business. In 1922, after negotiations with several large life insurance companies failed, Allianz established its own life insurance subsidiary in just 10 days—— Allianz Lebensversicherungs-AG developed rapidly and became the largest life insurance company in Europe in 1927. Also in 1927, Allianz acquired Stuttgarter Verein, Germany's largest casualty and liability insurance company at the time. In this way, through the establishment of new business units and mergers and acquisitions, Allianz has become a comprehensive insurance service provider.
However, Allianz's business suffered a heavy blow during World War II, and even the headquarters building was destroyed by war in 1943. However, both world wars failed to knock down the tenacious Allianz: In 1949, Allianz moved its headquarters from Berlin to Munich, rebuilt the headquarters building, and began the recovery period after World War II. With the rapid economic growth of the Federal Republic of Germany from the 1950s to the 1970s, it became the largest economy in Europe. Allianz Insurance Group also achieved rapid development during this period and consolidated its position as Germany's largest insurance company.
Since the 1950s, Allianz began to resume its international business, opening branches in France, Italy and other Western European countries, and continuously expanding its business scale outside Germany: In 1959, Allianz established an office in Paris and began Entered the French market and set up an office in Italy in 1966 to expand business. However, until 1970, Allianz's foreign premium income still accounted for only 3.2% of total income, indicating that the internationalization process was not optimistic. Afterwards, Allianz began to accelerate its overseas expansion, and since 1975 it has successively opened corporate insurance companies in the United Kingdom, Spain, the Netherlands, France, the United States and other countries.
In the 1980s and 1990s, the Western economy fell into "stagflation", and the operating performance of some companies declined significantly, setting off a wave of mergers and acquisitions. Allianz also accelerated the pace of corporate mergers and acquisitions. In 1984, Allianz acquired more than half of the equity of RAS, Italy's second largest insurance company; in 1989, it acquired 65% of the shares of French insurance company VIA/Rhin Moselle; in the same year, due to the reunification of East and West Germany, Allianz took over the former Democratic Republic of Germany insurance company, and acquired the Hungarian Budapest Insurance Company after the drastic changes in Eastern Europe. In 1990, Allianz paid $1.1 billion to acquire Firefighters Fund Insurance, then the 11th largest property insurance company in the United States. This acquisition tripled Allianz's premium income in the United States; it acquired the Swiss insurance company Elvia. The move makes Allianz the fifth largest insurance service provider in the Swiss market; the acquisition of Lloyd Adriatico and Vereinte Group, which specializes in car insurance, further consolidates Allianz's position in the Italian market. In addition, insurance companies such as Cornhill in the UK, USA Life in the United States, Manufacturers' Mutual Insurance Group in Australia and Cairo-based Arab International Insurance (AIIC) have successively joined Allianz in the past 20 years.
In the decision-making of many mergers and acquisitions, Allianz attaches great importance to whether the acquisition target can fill the blank areas in the region or business. This makes most of Allianz’s acquisitions play a positive role in the development of the company. Overseas The proportion of business has increased significantly, accounting for 40% of total premiums in 1989, and this proportion has continued to rise since then.
In early 1998, Allianz invested 4.5 billion euros to successfully acquire 57.6% of the shares of AGF Insurance Group, the third largest loss and accident insurance company and the eighth largest life insurance company in France, thus becoming one of its largest insurance companies. Controlling shareholder. As one of France's major insurance companies, AGF was also one of the constituent stocks of the CAC40 index of the Paris Stock Exchange. As of 2007, when it completely acquired the company and stopped trading on the Paris Stock Exchange, Allianz was the general manager of this merger and acquisition. *** has invested approximately 14.3 billion euros.
In addition, Allianz also acquired the remaining 44.5% shares of Italian RAS company in 2006 for 5.9 billion euros.
In the mature markets of Europe and the United States, Allianz has formed four major main markets: Germany, Italy, France, and the United States. The annual premium income in Italy alone reaches 14 billion euros. At the same time, Allianz also regards the Asia-Pacific, Middle East and North Africa regions in emerging markets as key areas for development in the next stage.
In the Asia-Pacific region, after years of careful management, Allianz Group has a strong business network and has branches in almost all important countries and regions. After Allianz integrated its business in the region in 1996, it established its regional headquarters in Singapore. Since then, in order to strengthen its market position in the Asia-Pacific region, Allianz has taken continuous measures:
In 1996, Allianz opened the group's first life insurance branch in the Asia-Pacific region in Indonesia;
At the end of 1998, Allianz acquired all shares of MMI, Australia's seventh largest insurance company, making it a wholly-owned subsidiary of Allianz;
In other regions of the Asia-Pacific, Allianz holds 89% of Allianz's shares Yixin Insurance Hong Kong Co., Ltd. officially opened in April 1999; in May of the same year, Allianz became the largest foreign insurance company in South Korea after acquiring the No. 1 Life Insurance Company, which ranked fourth in South Korea; in June, Allianz opened a new business in Taiwan, China It acquired two insurance companies to enter the Taiwan insurance market; in July, Allianz obtained a license to operate non-life insurance business in Vietnam and became the first wholly foreign-owned insurance company in Vietnam.
In 2001, Allianz acquired Overseas Chinese Insurance Company of Malaysia and established Allianz General Insurance Malaysia Berhad. Between 2001 and 2004, the company’s ranking in the Malaysian insurance industry rose from 13th to 13th. 7th place; changed its name to Allianz Malaysia Berhad in 2007.
In 2001, Allianz also formed a joint venture with the famous Indian family business Bajaj Group. Allianz holds 26% of its shares, with more than 13 million customers and annual premium income exceeding 2 billion. Euro, ranking first among Allianz Asia-Pacific countries/regions.
In 2007, Allianz (Taiwan) Life's premium income ranked first among foreign life insurance companies in Taiwan, and it was also the seventh largest branch of Allianz Life in the world. At a time when European insurance companies such as Prudential and ING are withdrawing from the Taiwan market due to poor management, Allianz has shown good adaptability to the Chinese insurance market and achieved impressive results: Allianz Life (Taiwan) new insurance premiums in 2007 The growth rate is as high as 79%; in 2009 and 2010, the local market share of investment-linked insurance business exceeded 30% for two consecutive years. In 2010, new investment-linked insurance orders sold were NT$53.3 billion (approximately US$1.85 billion), ranking first for the second consecutive year. It ranks first among all insurance companies in Taiwan in terms of investment-linked insurance business; its total premium income is close to NT$91 billion (approximately US$3.1 billion), ranking fifth among all life insurance companies in Taiwan and among the top branches of Allianz Asia Pacific.
Allianz Group carries out insurance business in more than 10 countries and regions in the Asia-Pacific region and has more than 22 million customers. Among them, India, Taiwan, Australia and South Korea rank among the top four in the region. Cumulative premium income in 2009 reached 8.5 billion euros. In 2010, Allianz's net premium income in the Asia-Pacific region further rose to 9.3 billion euros, accounting for nearly 10% of the entire group's premium income. In order to develop the company into an international comprehensive financial service provider, Allianz made an important strategic decision in 1998: the Group will vigorously develop the asset management business as an independent core business of the Group. In 2000, Allianz invested US$3.3 billion to acquire 70% of the shares of PIMCO Advisor (Pacific Asset Management Company), a subsidiary of Pacific Life Insurance Company of America. At that time, the company managed US$256 billion in assets and was the largest asset management company in the United States. Subsequently, Allianz Acquired Nicholas Applegate for US$2.2 billion. With the help of these two large-scale mergers and acquisitions, Allianz has transformed from a blank in the asset management field to a strong player in charge of US$600 billion in assets in just two years. This marks the transformation of Allianz Group from a single insurance company to a diversified financial company. The group's development has taken an important step.
Today, Pacific Asset Management, a subsidiary of Allianz, is the world's largest bond fund management company, with investment experts like the world's "Bond King" Bill Gross. In 2007, the company also hired Former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan has been appointed as an economic advisor, mainly responsible for asset management consulting; Allianz Global Investors, another asset management company under Allianz, is the third largest asset management company in the world, and has become the world's third largest asset management company since 2008. The largest active asset management company.
In September 2011, Allianz established Allianz Asset Management, which includes two companies, Pacific Investment Management Company and Allianz Global Investors. This means that PIMCO has separated its business from other asset management departments of Allianz.
Allianz manages more than 400 open-end funds globally, covering money market funds, bond funds, stock funds, etc. These funds invest in financial markets in major regions around the world. Their customers include public pension funds, central banks, insurance companies, large enterprises, government agencies and charitable groups, as well as various financial service institutions and individual investors. Asset management The market is dominated by the United States, Germany, France, Italy and the Asia-Pacific region. The China Social Security Fund also became a client of Allianz Group in 2006. PIMCO, a subsidiary of Allianz, and Desheng Allianz became the managers of the social security fund’s overseas investments and obtained a 15% investment share: Among them, Desheng Allianz was active in the Hong Kong stocks of the social security fund. type product investment manager, PIMCO is a global bond active product investment manager (for details, please refer to the "Announcement on the Selection Results of Overseas Investment Managers" of the Social Security Fund Council, November 29, 2006). This marks the assets of Allianz Group Our management capabilities have also been recognized and trusted by the Chinese government.
Since the amount of assets managed by Allianz is very large and covers a wide range of areas, Allianz’s investment operations have always taken stability as its primary goal and are very rigorous when selecting investment projects. “Grassroots Research” is a subsidiary of Allianz The main method used by funds when making investment decisions. The so-called "grassroots research" means that industry researchers have to visit the production and sales links of listed companies for a long time to conduct on-site investigations. For example, to buy a drug manufacturer's stock, a researcher or analyst does not first analyze its fundamentals based on financial statement data. Instead, they conduct a large number of interviews with hospital medical workers and ask them whether they would prescribe the drug to their patients. Drugs, how effective this drug is, etc. Through a large number of similar interviews, we write research reports to judge the company's operating conditions and growth prospects, and then prove whether the company has investment value.
In 1987, Allianz purchased the stock of a game console manufacturer with excellent performance. The company's electronic game consoles and other toys were popular in the children's market at that time. But one day, when the chief investment officer of Allianz returned home, he found that his daughter had switched to playing a different brand of game console, and told his father that other children, like him, did not play the game produced by the previous company. game console because it is somewhat outdated. Therefore, Allianz believes that there is a certain time lag in judging the investment value of a listed company through financial statements. When its products go from peak to decline, it cannot be immediately reflected in the statements. Mistakes may be made based solely on financial data. investment decisions. Therefore, he began to set up a non-financial research team and established a complete set of market tracking, research and analysis processes and methods to supplement and disprove traditional financial research that mainly focuses on financial statement analysis.
In December 1999, grassroots researchers under Allianz conducted a large number of market field surveys and found that the demand for high-end red wine in the British and American markets in 2000 was extremely strong. Among them, the high-end red wine produced by the Australian southcorp company Red wine, although the price per bottle is 12 Australian dollars higher than similar products on the market, is still the most popular among consumers. Therefore, grassroots researchers sent reports to researchers in relevant industries of the company to draw the attention of industry researchers. In the following year, grassroots researchers closely tracked the development of the red wine market and confirmed that southcorp indeed came out on top among all competitors.
Later, the company merged with the domestic company Rosemount Estates. Grassroots researchers found that the company's market position was further strengthened after the merger, and its high-price marketing strategy did not affect its competitiveness in the market. As a result, industry researchers believe that the company's future revenue and profits will grow at a rapid pace, and it has huge investment value. Finally, the fund manager makes investment decisions based on the analysis of the research team. The subsequent market performance of the company's stock proved that the research team's judgment was correct and brought huge returns to Allianz Group.
After more than 10 years of development, Allianz’s grassroots research teams are spread all over the world and are composed of doctors, lawyers and dealers. The theory and methods of "grassroots research" have also been gradually improved and used as a systematic "unique weapon" in the Allianz Group around the world, contributing a lot to investment returns. ——(The above introduction to "grassroots research" is taken from the 12th issue of "China Economic Weekly" in 2004)
In 2001, Allianz also tried to enter the banking industry, with a price of 23.5 billion euros. Acquired Dresdner Bank, Germany's third largest bank. This acquisition enabled Allianz to realize mixed financial operations, and its total assets exceeded 1 trillion euros for the first time, making it the world's fourth largest financial group after Citigroup, American International Group and HSBC Group.
However, because Allianz Group itself was not familiar with banking business and underestimated the difficulties, under the influence of the external environment of the Western economic downturn at that time, the depressed stock market caused serious losses on Dresdner Bank's investment products. , dragged down Allianz's financial status and profit performance, and suffered losses in 2002, indicating that the merger did not achieve the expected results. The development of things made Allianz feel it was difficult to control. Subsequently, it launched a series of resource integrations and planned the core businesses of the four major sectors of property insurance, life insurance, asset management and banking. It successfully got out of the cyclical trough, and its annual net profit rose to 7.966 billion euros (2007), ranking third among global insurance companies that year.
Since Dresdner Bank has never been able to form an effective integration with Allianz, Allianz sold it to Commerzbank for 9.8 billion euros in March 2008 and also acquired the bank. Cominvest, the asset management arm, and exclusive bancassurance sales rights for 15 years. After the merger is completed, Allianz will no longer directly operate banking business, but will become the largest shareholder of Commerzbank. The bank's total assets have also surpassed Deutsche Bank to become the largest commercial bank in Germany by assets. The two parties will work more closely in banking insurance and other aspects. cooperation. After years of unremitting efforts, Allianz's influence in many fields around the world is also increasing day by day. This is due to the company's strong strength and the accumulation of more than 100 years of history.
As the largest financial group in Germany, Allianz has inextricable ties with German industry giants such as Volkswagen, Deutsche Bank, Munich Re, Siemens Electric, and Mann Heavy Industries, especially with Germany’s largest There is a complex relationship of competition and cooperation between commercial banks Deutsche Bank, which has a heavy influence on the country's economy.
As a globally renowned insurance giant, Allianz has been providing insurance services to hundreds of Fortune 500 companies, including IBM, Coca-Cola, Boeing, BMW, Alcatel and other multinational companies. Giant.
As one of the major international industrial insurance underwriters, Allianz has a number of highly qualified engineers around the world. These experts not only provide customers with professional consultation, but also design special insurance protection for customers according to their different needs. The Allianz Technical Center located in the outskirts of Munich was formerly the "Damage Research Equipment Testing Center" (AZT) established in 1932. It was AZT that first introduced airbags into the automotive industry. The airbags in various types of cars come from AZT. technology patents. After the disintegration of the former Soviet Union and the drastic changes in Eastern Europe, transnational criminal groups became rampant in Germany, stealing vehicles on a large scale and transporting them to Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union for sale. This caused Allianz Insurance Company to lose hundreds of millions of marks every year. As a result, the company invested in the development of car anti-theft technology. It first designed an anti-theft lock that automatically whistled when thieves stole the car, and then further developed a car electronic code lock. This is how the intelligent control door lock in high-end cars was born. of.
In addition, the product research and development of some German automobile manufacturers have also received support from the Allianz Technical Center. For example, the development of the safety system of the Volkswagen Golf 6 was obtained from the cooperation between Volkswagen and the Allianz Technical Center.
Allianz is also an excellent and professional investor. During its years of business development, it has established close partnerships with giants in many industries around the world. It holds shares in many world-renowned industrial groups such as Siemens Electric, BASF Chemicals, Volkswagen, Bayer Pharmaceuticals, Total Petroleum, and BMW. It also invests in well-known financial institutions such as Deutsche Bank, Munich Re, and BNP Paribas. Highlighting its influence as a financial giant.
Allianz underwrites large-scale engineering construction projects all over the world, such as the 452-meter Petronas Twin Towers in Malaysia, the Bangkok Metro, the Indonesian power plant, the cross-sea bridge between Denmark and Sweden, and San Francisco in the United States. Golden Gate Bridge, Frankfurt Opera House in Germany, Singapore Light Rail, etc.
Allianz Group has also been involved in the shooting and production of many Hollywood and Bollywood movies. The shooting and production of blockbusters such as "Titanic" and "Harry Potter" cost a huge amount of money. Investment, equipment, props and personnel require strong companies to provide protection to prevent risks. Their producers are all customers of Allianz Group; among the 79 winning and nominated films at the 81st Oscar, 46 films were shot and The production purchased insurance through Firefighters Fund Insurance Company, a U.S.-controlled subsidiary of Allianz.
Allianz also served as the main sponsor of the Allianz-Arena Stadium in Munich, the main venue of the 2006 World Cup, which is the home stadium of the Bundesliga giants Bayern Munich. In addition, Allianz Insurance Group also sponsors the world's Formula 1 car racing and the Williams F1Team all year round, representing the world's highest level golf competition such as the Ryder Cup (Ryder Cup) and the America's Cup (America's Cup). sporting events.