CEO aims to take Allianz to the top
By Wang Lan (China Daily)
Updated: 2006-07-25 10:40
AZCL says its premium income in the first five months of 2006 soared 550.7
per cent from the previous period, raising the company from 10th to 4th place in
the ranking of China's foreign joint venture insurance companies.
As one
of the first European life insurance companies to enter the mainland market,
Allianz forged a joint venture in 1999 with domestic insurer Dazhong. But the
partnership was dissolved earlier this year in favour of CITIC. Declining to go
into detail about the split, Molt says: "We had different strategic priorities
to our previous partner."
Industry sources speculate that Dazhong was
unwilling to make the additional investment in capital and other resources
required by AZCL to realize its business expansion goals.
New partner,
CITIC "shares our strategy and interest in developing our presence in the
insurance market" on the mainland, says Molt.
What's more, the name
change has "underscored" the Allianz brand, says Molt. Now, all Allianz
insurance products sold in China are branded like those in other
markets.
In China, the company so far has penetrated the markets of 11
coastal cities, including Shanghai, Hangzhou, Ningbo, Shaoxing in Zhejiang
Province, Guangzhou, Panyu, Zhongshan, Jiangmen, Nanhai, Dongguan and Shenzhen
in Guangdong Province.
Molt says that the company is now targeting
Chengdu, Sichuan Province, in its expansion plan. "Our plan calls for the
exploration of markets as we move inland toward the west," he
said.
Discovering new inland markets is important to AZCL as well as to
other foreign joint venture insurance companies because the traditional markets
are overwhelmingly dominated by domestic insurers, notably China Life, with
premium income amounting to 91 billion yuan (US$11.4 billion) in the first five
months of 2006.
"Allianz culture is to run our business locally," Molt
says. The co-operation between AZCL and CITIC is a good example of the localized
strategy, he added.
"We know the insurance business very well and they
know the local market conditions."
Combining the best of international risk
management expertise and local capital management, "we are in a good position to
develop tailor-made life insurance products to meet the needs of Chinese
clients," says Molt.
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