User:Result KK/Draft of article Ergo Group

Ergo Group Aktiengesellschaft (own notation ERGO) is an internationally active insurance group based in Düsseldorf, Germany. The group is owned by Münchener Rückversicherungs-Gesellschaft Aktiengesellschaft in Munich (Munich Re), one of the world's largest reinsurers. Ergo is employing almost 30,000 staff worldwide, additionally, the group has around 12,500 registered representatives. With current income from insurance premiums of around 18,5 billion euros, Ergo Group is one of the largest primary insurers in Germany and Europe in 2017.

Main activities
Ergo Group and its subsidiaries are active in all fields of primary insurance. These include life insurance, property-casualty and legal expenses insurance, health insurance and travel insurance, besides that financial services. The main activities of the group focus on private clients, company pension schemes, and medium-sized business.

In addition to its home market of Germany, it operates in over 30 other European and non-European countries; the focus of its non-European business is on South and East Asia.

Since its restructuring in 2016, the Ergo Group has been promoting a new direct sales model on the German market. The internet is used as the main sales channel.

Group structure
The Ergo Group comprises three subordinate holding companies, which divide the Group's business activities among themselves in terms of geography and distribution channels: Ergo Deutschland AG, Ergo International AG and Ergo Digital Ventures AG. MEAG Munich Ergo Kapitalanlagegesellschaft mbH is the joint asset manager of Ergo Group and Munich Re.

Many of the companies listed below have additional subsidiaries

Ergo Deutschland AG
Ergo Deutschland AG bundles the Group's German business with the exception of direct insurance. These include the following subsidiaries:

Ergo Leben
Ergo Lebensversicherung AG is the largest life insurer within the group. It was founded in Mannheim in 1899. In 1912 it was renamed Hamburg-Mannheimer Versicherungs-AG and the company headquarters were moved to Hamburg. The current renaming took place in 2010.

Ergo Versicherung
Ergo Versicherung AG is the largest property and casualty insurer in the group. This includes the business fields of property insurance, accident insurance and legal expenses insurance. The company is based in Düsseldorf. It was founded in 1904 as Victoria Feuer-Versicherungs-Actien-Gesellschaft in Berlin. In 1989 it was renamed Victoria Versicherung AG. 2010 saw the current renaming and takeover of Hamburg-Mannheimer Sachversicherung and D.A.S. Versicherung AG. In 2015, D.A.S. Rechtsschutz-Versicherungs-AG was also merged into Ergo Versicherung.

Ergo Vorsorge
Ergo Vorsorge Lebensversicherung AG is currently the most active life insurer in the Ergo Group. The company was founded in 1990 as Vorsorge Lebensversicherung AG. In 1996 it was realigned as an 'insurance factory' and renamed in 2017.

Ergo Beratung und Vertrieb
Ergo Beratung und Vertrieb AG organizes the distribution of products of its sister companies within Ergo Deutschland AG. It was founded in Düsseldorf in 2014.

DKV
DKV Deutsche Krankenversicherung is the health insurance company of Ergo Deutschland. The company was founded in Berlin in 1927 and became part of the Hamburg-Mannheimer Group in 1932. Victoria Krankenversicherung was merged into DKV in 2010. Today the company is based in Cologne.

ERV
ERV Europäische Reiseversicherung specialises in travel insurance. The company was founded in Budapest in 1907 with the participation of Münchener Rückversicherungs-Gesellschaft as Europäische Güter- und Reisegepäckversicherung. ERV has been operating under the Ergo Group since 2009. The company is headquartered in Munich.

ITERGO
ITERGO Informationstechnologie GmbH provides IT services for the companies of the Ergo Group. The company was founded in 1999 in Düsseldorf.

Other companies
Ergo Deutschland AG also owns the following companies: Victoria Lebensversicherung AG (life insurance; only fulfilment of old contracts; new life insurance contracts are offered by Ergo Vorsorge Lebensversicherung), Ergo Pensionskasse AG, Ergo Pensionsfond AG, Ideenkapital GmbH, Allysca Assistance GmbH, Legial AG, D.A.S. Rechtsschutz Leistungs-GmbH and Ergo Life S.A.

Ergo International AG
The international business of the group is organized in Ergo International AG.

Ergo Digital Ventures AG
Ergo Digital Ventures AG is the umbrella company for subsidiaries that operate in the fields of direct insurance and digital business. It bundles the Group's efforts to digitise insurance.

Ergo Direkt
Ergo Digital Ventures develops and markets insurance products for direct sales under the brand name Ergo Direkt Versicherungen. There are no local insurance agencies and representatives for this distribution model. Customers and insurance companies communicate directly via the Internet or telephone. Three subsidiaries offer property insurance, accident insurance and legal expenses insurance, health insurance as well as life insurance. The subsidiaries have their headquarters in Nuremberg.

Nexible Versicherung
Nexible is the purely digital provider of the Ergo Group. Nexible Versicherung AG is a risk carrier and holds various insurance licenses. It was created in 2017 by rebranding Neckermann Versicherung AG. Nexible GmbH is an intermediary and handles pricing and product development, sales and marketing, customer service and claims management on behalf of Nexible Versicherung AG. It also develops the underlying software platform.

Nexible was founded as an autonomous company within the Group to develop and market insurance products and services for customers with a particular affinity to the Internet. The business model provides for a high degree of automation along the value chain and fully digital communication with the customer, both in the purchasing process and in service, and in the event of damage.

In October 2017, the first product to be launched by Nexible was a car insurance policy.

Ergo Digital IT GmbH
Ergo Digital IT GmbH was founded in November 2016 to accelerate digitization within the Ergo Group. The company has its headquarters in Berlin and a second location in Warsaw.

Ergo Mobility Solution GmbH
Ergo Mobility Solution GmbH was founded in Düsseldorf on January 5, 2017. The company pursues the development of strategic international cooperation with the automotive industry and the vehicle trade.

MEAG
While the three holding companies represent the core business of Ergo Group, the asset management of Ergo and its parent company Munich Re is bundled in MEAG Munich Ergo Assetmanagement GmbH. It was founded in 1999 and is headquartered in Munich.

History
Ergo Versicherungsgruppe (Ergo Group since 2016) was formed in 1997/1998 through the merger of two large German insurance groups, Victoria Holding and Hamburg-Mannheimer Holding. Victoria merged into Hamburg-Mannheimer, which had previously been renamed Ergo Versicherungsgruppe. Munich Re played an important role as both majority shareholder of Hamburg-Mannheimer and minority shareholder of the Victoria Group. It brought two other insurance companies into the Group in which it held majorities: DKV Deutsche Krankenversicherung in 1997 and ERV Europäische Reiseversicherung in 2009.

1853 to 1997: Victoria Group
The parent company of the Victoria Group was Allgemeine Eisenbahn-Versicherungs-Gesellschaft, founded in Berlin in 1853, which initially offered transport, life, accident and fire insurance for rail transport. After business was extended to general life insurance in 1860, the company was renamed Victoria zu Berlin Allgemeine Versicherungs-Actien-Gesellschaft in 1875. At the beginning of the 20th century, Victoria became Germany's largest life insurer. Victoria Feuer-Versicherungs-Actien-Gesellschaft was founded in Berlin in 1904 as the first subsidiary. Other subsidiaries were Victoria Rückversicherungs-AG, founded in 1923, and Victoria Krankenversicherung AG, taken over in 1988. Since 1961, the Victoria Group has also been the majority shareholder of D.A.S. Rechtsschutz-Versicherungs-AG, founded in 1928.

1899 to 1997: Hamburg-Mannheimer Group
The parent company of the Hamburg-Mannheimer Group was Vita Versicherungs-Actien-Gesellschaft, which was founded in Mannheim in 1899. After the takeover of shares by Versicherungsgesellschaft Hamburg in 1911, Vita moved its registered office to Hamburg in 1912 and changed its name to Hamburg-Mannheimer Versicherungs-Aktiengesellschaft. The core business of the company in the following decades was life insurance. In 1932, the company acquired a majority stake in Deutsche Krankenversicherung (DKV), which had been founded in 1927. In 1975 Nord-Deutsche und Hamburg-Bremer Versicherungs-Aktiengesellschaft was taken over and renamed Hamburg-Mannheimer Sachversicherungs-Aktiengesellschaft; it became the property insurance company of the Group. In 1979, the Group also entered the field of legal expenses insurance with Hamburg-Mannheimer Rechtsschutzversicherungs-AG. In 1992 Munich Re acquired a majority stake in the parent company.

Since 1855: Early international activities
Important predecessor companies of the Ergo Group were active abroad early on. In particular Hamburg-Bremer Feuer-Versicherungs-Gesellschaft and Nord-Deutsche Versicherungs-Gesellschaft, both later part of the Hamburg-Mannheimer Group, opened numerous agencies outside of Germany in the 19th century, especially overseas. In 1855, Hamburg-Bremer founded agencies in Copenhagen, Christiania (today Oslo), St. Petersburg and on the then Danish Caribbean island of St. Thomas; Honolulu and San Francisco followed in 1857. In the following decades, the company expanded into over 40 states and colonial territories. After the great earthquake in San Francisco in 1906, Hamburg-Bremer settled damages amounting to almost 8 million Reichsmarks. Before 1914, Nord-Deutsche Versicherungs-Gesellschaft also operated agencies in many trading centres around the world. The World Wars put an end to these activities. After 1945, both companies gave up their foreign ambitions.

Victoria Versicherung also expanded abroad at the end of the 19th century, but initially was more strongly focused on Europe. After these businesses also came to a standstill during the Second World War, Victoria resumed its foreign activities in 1959.

Formation of the Ergo Group
The merger of the Hamburg-Mannheimer and Victoria groups was prompted by concerns of the listed Victoria Holding regarding a takeover from abroad, and by the difficult business environment in the industry in view of increasing market concentration due to a series of major mergers in Germany and abroad. Against this background, Munich Re, as majority shareholder of the Hamburg-Mannheimer Group and minority shareholder of the Victoria Group, considered it interesting to consolidate and coordinate its major shareholdings in primary insurance business.

The Annual General Meeting of both holding companies approved the merger with a large majority at the beginning of December 1997. The respective subsidiaries of the two holding companies continued to operate under their own brand names Victoria, D.A.S., Hamburg-Mannheimer and DKV.

One Victoria registered share could be exchanged for ten Ergo bearer shares. Victoria Holding AG disappeared from the stock exchange after completion of the transaction on February 2, 1998. Its place in the MDAX was taken by Ergo Versicherungsgruppe AG on that day.

On 1 April 2001, Munich Re, the majority shareholder, announced an exchange offer to Ergo shareholders to exchange two Ergo shares for one Munich Re share plus a cash payment of €18. After the offer expired in July 2001, the Ergo share left the MDAX due to the reduced free float. In 2010, the Annual General Meeting of today's Ergo Group resolved to transfer the shares held by the minority shareholders of Ergo Versicherungsgruppe AG to Munich Re. Munich Re thus became the sole owner of the Group.

Takeover of KarstadtQuelle Versicherungen
In 2002, the Ergo Group invested in KarstadtQuelle Versicherungen, and in 2008, the company was taken over completely. As a result, the Group's business expanded to include direct insurance.

The life insurer KarstadtQuelle Versicherungen had been founded in 1984 as Quelle+Partner Versicherungen and was renamed Ergo Direkt in 2010.

Integration of Europäische Reiseversicherung (ERV)
In 2009, Munich Re also integrated its subsidiary Europäische Reiseversicherung (ERV) into the Ergo Group.

ERV had been founded in Budapest in 1907 with Munich Re's participation as Europäische Güter- und Reisegepäckversicherung. The Berlin branch was transformed into an independent German insurance company in 1919. In 1974 the company was renamed Europäische Reiseversicherung AG.

With the integration of ERV, the Ergo Group gained a further foothold in the travel insurance segment.

2010: New brand structure
In 2010, ERGO Versicherungsgruppe reorganized its brand structure. The traditional brands Victoria and Hamburg-Mannheimer were discontinued and partly replaced by the new brand Ergo, partly by the brands D.A.S. and DKV. The subsidiaries previously operating under the names Victoria or Hamburg-Mannheimer were renamed or merged with other companies. The brand name KarstadtQuelle also disappeared and became Ergo Direkt.

This resulted in a new brand and business assignment: life insurance was offered by Ergo Lebensversicherung, property and accident insurance by Ergo Versicherung, legal expenses insurance by D.A.S., health insurance by DKV, travel insurance by ERV and direct insurance by Ergo Direkt. In 2015 D.A.S. AG was merged into Ergo Versicherung AG, but the brand name D.A.S. was retained.

The launch of the new Ergo brand was accompanied by a major advertising campaign under the slogan „Versichern heißt Verstehen‟ - "To insure is to understand". In 2010 alone, 50 million euros were spent on this.

2016: Change of name to Ergo Group AG
A new structure was decided for the ERGO Group in 2016 to take account of the internationalisation of business. The holding company Ergo Versicherungsgruppe AG was renamed Ergo Group AG. Under this umbrella, a new Group level was created with three new, subordinate holding companies: Ergo Deutschland AG was to be responsible in future for the business activities and subsidiaries in Germany, Ergo International AG was to bundle the international activities of the group and Ergo Digital Ventures AG was to become the new framework for all digital and direct activities.