Gothaer posts 9.1% rise in corporate business boosted by inflation

Cologne-based insurer Gothaer has announced further strong growth in its SME and middle market corporate insurance business during 2022 full-year results. The German company said that business with medium-sized companies is playing an “increasingly important” role at the carrier. Overall, the multi-line insurer suffered a slight decline in premium income of 2.3% to €4.57bn in 2022. This was driven by an 18.4% fall in life business. But the corporate customer business rose by an impressive 9.1% to reach €1.47bn. The group conceded, however, that clauses contained in many contracts to adjust premium in line with inflation played a significant role in the uptick. It also said it plans to use its growing position in the corporate sector to build its health insurance and pension scheme business. CEO Oliver Schoeller said that, despite the challenging conditions in 2022, Gothaer will remain a reliable partner for its customers. Schoeller focused on how the group is supporting the sustainable transformation of German SMEs. “The past year was shaped by the Ukraine war, inflation and fears of recession. Despite this difficult situation, we achieved a very good result. Our composite insurer, Gothaer Allgemeine, and Gothaer Krankenversicherung are growing significantly. I am particularly pleased about the strong growth in the corporate customer segment, with an increase of 9.1%, which is also based on our sustainability strategy for small and medium-sized enterprises,” he said. Despite inflation and fears of recession, the group's equity base was further strengthened in 2022. Consolidated net income increased by 1.3% to €83m. Ratings agency S&P confirmed Gothaer's excellent positioning and financial strength rating with an “A” and a “stable” outlook for all three core companies. Like many other insurers currently, Gothaer wants to continue to push the topic of sustainability. “The sustainable transformation of our society and our economy is the greatest human task that we have to master in the next three decades. As an insurer, we want to make our contribution and reduce both our own carbon footprint and that of our customers – be it as an investor, risk carrier or with our expertise and consulting services for our customers,” explained Schoeller. In terms of capital investment, Gothaer said that it will make €200m available annually for sustainable impact investments. The CO2 footprint of equity and corporate bonds, as well as real estate investments, will be reduced by 25% and 20% respectively by 2024. At the same time, sustainability modules will be integrated into all Gothaer product lines, said the insurer. The company said that its market leadership in renewable energies was further expanded in 2022. “We already insure more than 26,000 onshore wind turbines worldwide. In many European markets we have a market penetration of more than 30%. We are systematically expanding this strong position and developing new markets,” said Thomas Bischof, CEO of Gothaer Allgemeine Versicherung. The group pointed out that new wind power plants and wind farms in Norway, Italy, Chile, the USA and Israel, as well as hydrogen production plants, were recently insured. Entry into new market segments such as offshore wind turbines is also being examined, added Gothaer. The insurer said it wants to actively support German medium-sized companies in their sustainable transformation. “We actively support medium-sized companies in reducing their energy consumption and in switching to renewable energies. To this end, we offer our customers access to comprehensive energy advice via our platform www.econize.de. This includes an individual energy audit, measures to reduce CO2 emissions and a cost-benefit analysis,” Bischof said. "In view of the ambitious climate targets of the federal government and the drastically increased energy prices, the demand for this offer is increasing rapidly." The insurer pointed out that SMEs are increasingly focusing on the social aspects of sustainability. It believes this will drive demand for the insurer’s corporate life and health services. Gothaer said that many employers are boosting their sustainability activities to help in the battle for talent. Companies are increasingly relying on company health insurance (bKV) and company pension schemes (bAV) to achieve this, it said. “The transformation of employers into provision and welfare service providers is picking up speed. This is also confirmed by our figures from the bKV. In the last two years alone, new business in the statutory health insurance has grown by 162%. At the same time, the proportion of employer-financed bKV is increasing significantly and is now 44%," said Sylvia Eichelberg, CEO of Gothaer Krankenversicherung. Michael Kurtenbach, CEO of Gothaer Lebensversicherung, sees a similar development in company pension schemes. “With a share of one third of the premium income in the life insurance segment, company pension schemes have become extremely relevant and we definitely see further growth tendencies. It is also pleasing that we can increasingly use our product range to provide impetus in the direction of sustainability. Seventy-nine percent of our company pension scheme customers choose sustainable indices for new business,” he said.

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