Italian insurer GENERALI announced GENERALI Deutschland, Germany's second-largest primary insurance group, will launch "the next phase of its industrial transformation to strengthen its operating performance and increase long-term value creation".

Thus, GENERALI Deutschland will adopt the "One Company" model. "With this approach, GENERALI will concentrate ten product factories into one single powerful and innovative product development engine across all entities for all brands. The new platform will consolidate all technical and product capabilities for each of the three segments: P&C, Health and Life. This will deliver a simpler and innovative product offering that can be tailored to the various distribution channel and brands".

On the other hand, GENERALI will put into run-off GENERALI Leben. The company said this step will grant high security for all existing life contracts and substantially mitigate GENERALI's exposure to interest rate risk. The company mentioned, it will improve the return on risk capital and contribute to a 1.7 p.p. increase in the Group's Economic Solvency and 26 p.p. to the Solvency of GENERALI Deutschland. "GENERALI Deutschland aims to start the run-off during the first quarter 2018. This reorganization does not exclude a potential future disposal of the GENERALI Leben portfolio".

"Today's announcement is in line with GENERALI Group's key strategic objectives: to improve operating performance and to create long- term value. It accelerates GENERALI's transformation in Germany, one of the Group's core markets. These actions will simplify processes, consolidate our distribution network, increase our product range and strengthen the GENERALI brand. Further, the run-off of GENERALI Leben will free up resources that will allow us to capture new growth opportunities in the German market", said Philippe DONNET, GENERALI Group CEO GENERALI Group CEO.

"This is the next step towards excellence for GENERALI Deutschland. This next phase will accelerate our growth story, increase profitability, reduce capital absorption and strengthen our competitive position. The adoption of the "One Company" approach will reduce complexity, improve go-to market capability and reinforce our leading role in product innovation and smart insurance", pointed out Giovanni LIVERANI, CEO of GENERALI Deutschland.