Speculation about major takeover bids in the insurance industry is gathering pace. Mario Greco, the CEO of Zurich Insurance Group, however is no friend of such mega-deals at all.
Consolidation is the word of the day in the insurance business. France’s Axa for instance recently paid $15 billion for Catlin Re.
Others frequently mentioned as potentially interested in such transactions are Allianz of Germany and Generali, the Italian insurance giant. Zurich Insurance has been mentioned in the media as a possible takeover target.
Not With Greco
Mario Greco, CEO at Zurich, will likely fight any such attempt to buy the company. At an insurance conference hosted by «Handelsblatt» he said that cross-border, transforming transactions won’t ever be something for Zurich.
He doesn’t believe in the sense of such mergers and takeovers and told the audience that Zurich was already as global a firm as hardly any other insurance company in the world.
Greco also said that he didn’t think that tech firms such as Google or Amazon would be taking an interest in a company such as Zurich because they may be interested in its customers, but not in the business.
