Worldwide GWP for 1998 (£000s):
£12,205,064 (1997: £11,093,078)
Chief executive:
Thomas Wellauer
Biography:
Prior to joining Winterthur in 1997, Wellauer was a senior partner at the international management consultancy McKinsey & Company where he worked for 12 years serving clients in Europe, the United States and Asia.
Born in 1955, Thomas Wellauer received his PHD in Systems Engineering from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology and his MBA from the University of Zurich (Switzerland).
Year company established:
1875
Address, telephone and fax numbers of European head office:
40 General Guisan-Strasse
CH-8401 Winterthur
Switzerland
Tel: +41 52 261 11 11
Fax: +41 52 213 66 20
http://www.winterthur.com
Key general insurance personnel:
Peter Spalti (chairman)
C Christen (general manager)
H J Frie (general manager)
H-R Stickler (general manager)
W Suter (general manager)
Giovanni Bagiotti (asset management director)
Company history:
Winterthur Insurance was founded in 1875. It was in its very first year of business that it opened branch offices outside Switzerland. In 1923 it expanded into life insurance business.
Today Winterthur maintains over 28,000 staff in more than 30 countries worldwide. Together with the bank subsidiaries of Credit Suisse Group, it forms one of the world's leading integrated financial services companies. Winterthur focuses on insurance as its core business. It offers private and corporate customers tailor-made insurance and pension solutions at the local and international level. In industrial business, Winterthur operates world-wide and is among the world's leading insurers of multinational corporations, while in consumer business it prefers to specialise in selected European markets. Its reinsurance activity is focused on selected market and customer segments.
With a premium volume of over CHF 27bn and capital investments of around CHF 100bn the Winterthur Group is one of the leading insurers and one of the ten largest internationally operating insurance groups worldwide. It employs more than 28,000 members of staff, of whom 75% work outside Switzerland in some 30 countries. Together with the bank subsidiaries of Crédit Suisse Group (with which it merged in September 1997), it forms one of the world's leading integrated financial services companies. Its Rechtsschutzversicherung ARAG Schweiz now provides call-centre facilities for the domestic market, while its North American interests include link-ups with American Insurance Group and Travelers Property Casualty. In Germany, however, its 1990 agreement with Commerzbank was terminated in 1998 when Commerzbank teamed up with Generali of Italy.
Different classes of business:
Non-life
Life
Motor
Reinsurance
Parent Company:
Crédit Suisse Group
Major Shareholder:
Crédit Suisse Group
Worldwide net written premium for 1998 (£000s):
£11,484,613
Worldwide net written premium for 1997 (£000s):
£10,329,142
