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Non-Tech : Conseco Insurance (CNO) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Dale Baker who wrote (3717)	11/2/2000 5:03:36 PM
From: 44magnumpower	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 4155

NEW YORK, Nov 2 (Reuters) - German insurer Allianz AG is preparing to buy its way into the top tier of the U.S. insurance market, the chairman of Europe's largest insurer said on Thursday, a day before its stock starts trading on the New York Stock Exchange. Allianz, Europe's largest insurer and second in worldwide market value to U.S. insurer American International Group Inc. (NYSE:AIG - news), said his first priority was life insurance acquisitions, followed by property-casualty and asset management. He added that listing in the United States would allow more options in making big deals. ``We are aiming to reach a top five position in the major markets of the world,'' Allianz Chairman Henning Schulte-Noelle said at a press conference here. ``It (the listing) increases our strategic flexibility,'' he later told Reuters in an interview. ``We are prepared for any opportunities that come along.'' A U.S. listing is considered critical to foreign companies looking to make U.S. acquisitions because many American portfolio managers are limited in the percentage of foreign stocks they can hold. The listing of Allianz's American Depositary Shares should eliminate that problem, offering an alternative to using cash in a deal. NO NAMES YET Allianz, which is 110 years old and has 117,000 employees in 77 countries, is one of Germany's largest companies, and is now looking to translate its dominance at home into power in the U.S. market. It has ``nothing concrete'' on its U.S. acquisition schedule yet, Schulte-Noelle said, refusing to discuss specific companies. He said he was looking to expand in each of its three main businesses in the U.S.: property-casualty insurance, life insurance, and asset management. ``In asset management, we have done two big deals, and we have to digest those, so that's not an issue at the moment,'' he said, referring to Allianz's purchase last month of U.S. money manager Nicholas-Applegate for about $2.22 billion, and its $3.3 billion purchase of PIMCO Advisors Holding LP, a fixed income fund manager, completed in May. ``Life (insurance) is a clear priority, but not the only one,'' said Schulte-Noelle. ``If something would add to our property-casualty activities in a value-creating way, we would certainly look at it.'' Allianz has some way to go to reach the top tier in the U.S. insurance markets. Its main U.S. property-casualty operation, Fireman's Fund Insurance Co., is barely a top-20 player. Its life insurance operations, under the name Allianz Life Insurance Co. of North America, ranks 51st among U.S. life and health insurers, according to 1999 premium data from rating agency A.M. Best Co. Allianz is Europe's largest combined property-casualty and life insurer with $45 billion in annual premiums. Its U.S. asset management operations are further along, with about $320 billion in managed assets, counting both PIMCO and Nicholas-Applegate, putting the firm in the U.S. top-10. Worldwide, Allianz has about $640 billion under management. MONEY TO SPENDSchulte-Noelle would not say how much his company would spend on acquisitions, but with the German insurer dwarfing almost every U.S. insurer, and no shortage of cash, virtually every U.S. insurance company is within its reach, with the exception of AIG.