Naslov: Gael Loaec Država, izvor, izdanje: Hrvatska, Večernji list, Prilog Datum, stranica: , 1 Površina: Briefing d.o.o.

Transcription

1 Naslov: Gael Loaec Država, izvor, izdanje: Hrvatska, Večernji list, Prilog Datum, stranica: , 1 Površina: 1380 Briefing d.o.o.

2 Naslov: Gael Loaec Država, izvor, izdanje: Hrvatska, Večernji list, Prilog Datum, stranica: , 1 Površina: 1380 Briefing d.o.o.

3 Naslov: Gael Loaec Država, izvor, izdanje: Hrvatska, Večernji list, Prilog Datum, stranica: , 1 Površina: 1380 Briefing d.o.o.

4 INTERVIEW: Gaël Loaëc Chairman of the Société Générale Osiguranje d.d. Managing Board says they will soon be among top ten life insurance companies in Croatia The Chairman of the Société Générale Osiguranje d.d. Managing Board relativizes the crisis and sends a message that they are here to stay Gaël Loaëc Low Average Premium in Croatia, Big Prospect for Growth If a good opportunity appears, we are open to acquisition By Valentina Wiesner Mijić Société Générale Osiguranje d.d. was established recently, by Splitska banka and an international insurance company Sogecap which is doing business within its parent Group. The sales network of the bank was trained for selling life insurance to natural persons and corporations with cash loans and housing loans and within the first two months they realised 5 mil. HRK premiums. They expect big business, that is why they started with the initial capital in the amount of 40,9 mil. HRK, almost double than what is prescribed by the law, said Mr. Gaël Loaëc, the Chairman of the Managing Board at the recent presentation of the Company. In his first interview to Croatian media, Loaëc who came to Zagreb from Paris Sogecap headquarters, revealed their plans and commented on the market situation. The Chairman of the Company was Actuarial director since 2005 and managed the whole range of Sogecap life insurance products. His long term actuarial experience was built in BNP-ERE, of BNP Paribas Group and Cardiff. Why did you decide to enter Croatian market at this point, when the economic crisis still has not reached the bottom? We would have preferred of course not to be in this period of crisis. But it is not so important in fact. Our target is not to come and to make quick profits, but to stay for a long time. As insurance company we are used to do long-term business. We invest in countries of Central and Eastern Europe for a long term business, because we believe in the future potential of these countries. The work we are doing now; establishing a new life insurance company, good products, good processes, and in the end added value for the clients, all this is anyway an investment for the future, even in case of a long crisis. However, Société Générale could have started the insurance business immediately after acquisition of Splitska banka and you could have built the insurance portfolio in the period of credit growth First we needed to convince Splitska banka to get involved in this investment. Splitska banka is completely free to make strategic decisions, even though we are in the same Group. After that, in the period between coming to this country and getting all the necessary permits, and there were ten of them, we handled many negotiations. This business is under very strong supervisory control, and we needed to present many proofs to authorities before the beginning.

5 The forecast for the Croatian insurance market is bad, mostly negative results. How do you see the market situation? We are aware of the difficulties we will meet in this market. Of course, the situation will still be hard for everyone during next months, and perhaps years, but we are still optimistic. First of all, because we did record 5 mil. HRK of premiums since our beginning in May, which is not bad and is totally in accordance with our business plan. By the end of the year, a realistic plan is increase of premiums to 12 mil. HRK. And moreover, as I already stated, we are more focused on long-term targets. To me, as a manager, the important thing is that the average amount of life insurance premium per capita is significantly lower in Croatia than in Slovakia, Hungaria or Slovenia. There is absolutely no reason that this gap stays in a long term. The needs for health protection and saving for retirement will grow in the future, in Croatia like in other countries, so we have work to do When I came to Croatia, I was not so surprised with the market situation, I analysed the insurance system and all the laws were very similar to the EU laws, the insurance companies respect the requests of capital amount and solvency. The market is still in the transition, we need to find balance between control and growth and I believe it will be established soon. How is your group doing in France and other countries where it is present at the moment? Are you an important market player and what is your potential? In France Sogecap, with 7,6 bil. EUR of premiums last year, is the fourth bank insurance company. We have 8 mil. of policyholders, and manage for them 64 bil. of EUR of technical reserves. The gig group is behind us. We decided to export our know-how, and we opened 15 subsidiaries until now. In each country, we create different products, depending on specific needs or legal rules in the country. More subsidiaries will be created during next years. Our strategy is clear. We do not want to expand to two types of countries; to very rich, oversupplied markets, and too poor markets. We are interested in wealthier countries with potential to grow, such as young East and Central European markets, North Africa, China, Russia and South America. Growth The average amount of life insurance premium per capita is significantly lower in Croatia than in Slovakia, Hungaria or Slovenia. There is no reason that this gap stays in a long term. In what way will you use the network of Splitska banka? The law prohibits sale of policies to the people who are not certified representatives. Many employees of Splitska banka can sell the policies, we have people trained and certified by HANFA. The strategy is to have one certified representative in each branch office, and at this moment we still have not reached that goal, but it will soon be exceeded. We are professionals of bank insurance business; we are experts in that area. Our job is to take the best possibilities of synergy with the Bank, but we do not forget at any time that we are an insurance company. We are inside of it, it is our parent company, so we have the confidence from the Bank who knows that we will never try not to respect its interest. So we will work closely on each project, each price, each training everything will be more efficient in order to use as much as possible the possibility of the good network of Splitska banka, which number of branches is growing in the north of Croatia, while maintaining its leading position in the South, coastal part. Do you plan cooperation with other banks, or other financial institutions? Why not?! However, we do not expect a lot of business on this side because each bank has its own life insurance provider now. We have built a group insurance product in order to protect loans companies against death, disability and hospitalisation risks of their client, and the company Crediflex did already subscribe to this corporate contract. We are already working with one another loan company which is interested by this corporate product. However, at this point our focus is on the Splitska banka network. That is enough work for the next year or two; we need to train the employees, create good products and teach them to sell them. That is a lot of work. With the international know-

6 how we can create high quality products which we can adjust to Croatian citizens, laws and tax system. We can then offer them to any interested partner. Do you plan to focus on bank insurance and only life insurance range? Yes. We do not reject the idea of direct sales channel as such, but the strength and quality of the network of Splitska banka, its territory coverage and quality of the staff is a great potential which we shall make full use of, and offer our clients to manage their life insurance needs in the well establish modern and available premises. Do you think that you can offer some new things to our market? How will you attract clients at the moment when they are mostly terminating insurance contracts? If you see the car market and consider that a car is just 4 tires and a motor, you will think that all the cars of the market are the same, but they are not. This is the same for a life insurance product. We will like others make protection products and saving products, but the definition of the guarantees will be different from other products in the market and will bring more choice to Croatian people. For example our consumer loan insurance has a far more quick and simple medical selection system than the products on the market now. Our housing loan insurance has of course a separate insurance premium but the client can pay at the same time both -the loan instalment and insurance premium in order not to have to pay in two times like this is the case with other products on the market. We will continue to create new products with numerous small other services which will simplify the life of our clients. Work and additional value for the client is the only way to attract them. If we see a good opportunity in Croatia and this region, we are open for acquisition, too Do you have ambitions for acquisitions some day? Or perhaps you plan to do so soon, while the prices are low? It is logical that you are curious about that, considering the drop of the price on the market. However, we will not buy something in Croatia at first impression. We are not focused on buying an insurance company in Croatia, as we already did invest money in establishing our own company and as we have a good network through Splitska banka. Usually the strategy of the group is to start from scratch, to build a good bank insurance business, and in the second step to propose our know-how to other distributors. But of course, if we see a good opportunity in Croatia and this region, we will study it, we are very open-minded persons What is your target market share and what groups of clients? The market share is not a target by itself. Our target is to bring the best products as possible for the network, to organize secure and efficient process at the best cost, and to bring value to our Group. If we do it like this, we will naturally be in the top ten of life insurance companies in Croatia very soon, but this is a consequence, not the target by itself. If we have the good results, everyone is happy and it is not important if we make it in the top ten companies. When do you think you could enter the profit zone and what premium income growth do you expect? Our business plan integrates a positive final result not before the fourth year of activity. This is classic for a starting insurance business because of the initial investment costs, first of all due to investment in development of IT solutions and creating products. Expected premiums are at least 12 mil. of HRK in 2009, and the double in 2010.

7 Risk The prevailing risk now and the only one that significantly influences our business is still the social effect of crisis during the next months on Croatian people. But as said before, we are still positive about our business Target Our target is to bring the best products as possible for the network, to organize secure and efficient process at the best cost, and to bring value to our Group. If we do it like this, we will naturally be in the top ten of life insurance companies in Croatia very soon, but this is a consequence, not the target by itself. Do you think of our market as higher risk and what risks do you perceive as prevailing at the moment? As insurance company, the risks we have to face on the market are numerous, and can be linked to the economic situation or to the health of Croatian people (risk of epidemic...), or financial risks as well as other we face in the daily business as a company. When we speak of financial risks, it is better for us that we are starting now, than it would have been if we had started few years before, because we would have had big problems these days in that case. Our job as an insurance life company is to organize our business processes according to the best practices and directives we follow, as well as EU and Croatian, in order to try to control or at list to minimize impact of these risks, such as financial we have seen has affected a number of Croatian companies or health risk we all watch tightly these days So, the prevailing risk now and the only one that significantly influences our business is still the social effect of crisis during the next months on Croatian people. But as said before, we are still positive about our business