九色

Zurich Insurance Group AG, Switzerland’s biggest insurer, says a business unit selling insurance to corporate clients will become more important as the companies expand abroad.

“Companies growing beyond their border is a trend that will last,” Thomas Huerlimann, head of the firm’s global corporate unit, said in an interview in Zurich last week. “We will further increase our offering to business customers.”

Zurich Insurance is seeking to improve operating profitability and earnings through prioritizing investments in areas such as corporate clients, while turning around or exiting businesses that are not performing as well, the company said in a presentation on its website earlier this month.

The global corporate unit also aims to sell more supply chain insurance, which covers losses should a client’s supplies fail and goods don’t arrive, Huerlimann said.

“Many of the smaller companies have become more international and we see a lot of demand for supply chain analysis and insurance,” he said. “This is an area of significant growth.”

Zurich Insurance started selling supply chain insurance and analysis in 2009 and income from the business is growing “albeit the premium volume is still small,” Huerlimann said. Premiums will rise to a “reasonable level in the coming years,” he said.

–Editors: Mark Bentley, Jon Menon

Topics Trends