Allianz Aims to Become European Company
biz.yahoo.com
Thursday September 21, 6:29 am ET
German Insurer Allianz Takes Another Step Toward Becoming a European Company
FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) -- Insurer and financial services company Allianz AG said Thursday it reached a deal with labor representatives that will allow it to convert itself into a European Company, or Societas Europea -- a designation that will make cross-border mergers easier to implement.
The Frankfurt-based company said it expects the change to be finished by mid-October.
"This agreement marks the breakthrough for our conversion into a Societas Europea," said Chief Financial Officer Paul Achleitner, who negotiated the deal with the company's labor groups.
The "SE" corporate designation was introduced in 2004 to help make cross-border mergers in Europe easier. Other companies that have made the change to the designation include Finland's Elcoteq, Swedish financial service company Nordea and Norway's Narada Europe.
To get the designation, Allianz restructured some of its operations and integrated its Italian unit, RAS Holding SpA, into the company.
Allianz and RAS said earlier Thursday that they removed the last significant hurdle for their cross-border merger with a deal on board representation for employees.
Allianz's group-wide restructuring also included a revamp of its German insurance operations, including thousands of job cuts, the reduction of the size of its supervisory board to 12 from 20 members and an enhanced international presence on the company's management board.
Six of Allianz SE's 12 supervisory board members will be labor representatives. Four of those six will represent German employees, and one each will represent French and British workers.
"This agreement is a good basis for developing a European workers' representation that's capable of acting," said Joerg Reinbrecht, an official with labor union Ver.di and member of the new Allianz SE supervisory board.
The six other members of the supervisory board had already been appointed by shareholders at an extraordinary general meeting in February. |
