Description of Česká pojišťovna – Company and Group

Česká pojišťovna Group Profile

Česká pojišťovna is a composite insurer providing a comprehensive range of services, encompassing, on the one hand, life and non-life personal lines, and, on the other, insurance for small, mid-sized, and large customers covering industrial and business risks and agriculture.

The Česká pojišťovna Group is structured for optimal management of a spectrum of services connected with the provision of private insurance, retirement savings and investment services. It leverages the advantages of this structure to the full, while exploiting the fact that, since 2008, Česká pojišťovna and its subsidiaries have been part of the Generali Group.

Thus, in addition to their core business activities, most companies in the Česká pojišťovna Group also provide services to their affiliates within Generali CEE Holding (Generali PPF Holding Group as at 31 December 2014), both by sharing capacity and through the mutual provision of services on an arm’s-length basis.

The History of Česká pojišťovna

Česká pojišťovna boasts a long, rich history. It is the oldest insurance institution in the Czech Lands, tracing its origin to 27 October 1827, when the articles of an institution called Císařsko-královský, privilegovaný, český, společný náhradu škody ohněm svedené pojišťující ústav (Imperial-Royal Privileged Bohemian Joint Fire Damage Insurance Institute) were approved. Arguably the best-known and largest claim in the Company’s history was the National Theatre fire in 1881. Česká pojišťovna paid out 297,869 Guldens for the reconstruction of the theatre, incurring a major financial loss in the process, but also gaining considerable prestige in the eyes of the Czech nation. By the 1920s, the Company was offering almost all kinds of insurance, including the still seldom seen motor insurance. In 1945, the insurance sector was nationalised, resulting in five insurance companies which, in 1948, were transformed into the single Československá pojišťovna (Czechoslovak Insurance Company).

In 1992, the National Property Fond of the Czech Republic transformed Česká pojišťovna into a public limited company and a year later the Company’s shares were listed on the Main Market of the Prague Stock Exchange. Česká pojišťovna was delisted on 31 August 2005 in conjunction with a squeeze-out of minority shareholders.

In 1991, Česká pojišťovna set up the subsidiary KIS a.s. kapitálová investiční společnost České pojišťovny, now known as ČP INVEST investiční společnost, a.s., which is active in collective investment services. In 1992, Česká pojišťovna and its partner Vereinte Krankenversicherung AG Munich founded Česká pojišťovna ZDRAVÍ, which has since grown to become the largest provider of private health and sickness insurance in the Czech Republic. Five years later, Česká pojišťovna acquired a 100% stake in the company. In the 1990s, the Česká pojišťovna Group entered the supplementary pension market by establishing Penzijní fond České pojišťovny, a.s. (now Penzijní společnost České pojišťovny, a.s.), the largest supplementary pension provider in the Czech Republic. ČP DIRECT, a member of the Česká pojišťovna Group since 1998, works mainly in insurance intermediation (motor damage and motor third-party liability insurance).

The Česká pojišťovna Group members also currently include the Romanian pension fund Generali Societate de Administrare a Fondurilor de Pensii Private S.A., and the service organisation Generali PPF Services (renamed Generali Services CEE a.s. in January 2015), which is primarily used to manage selected agendas of Česká pojišťovna and Generali Pojišťovna. Through a branch based in Poland and the transfer of the portfolio of the Polish branch of the French insurance group GROUPAMA, the Group also expanded its reach into the Polish insurance market in 2013.

An important date in the modern history of Česká pojišťovna and its Group was 17 January 2008, when the Joint Venture Agreement signed on 10 July 2007 between Assicurazioni Generali and PPF Group N.V. took effect, giving rise to Generali PPF Holding B.V., in which the Generali Group held a 51% stake and the remaining 49% was held by the PPF Group. Česká pojišťovna and its subsidiaries consequently became part of one of the largest insurance groups in Central and Eastern Europe. Under a deal struck between the two owners in January 2013, Česká pojišťovna and its subsidiaries have been fully owned by the Generali Group since January 2015.