Equity Story

A provider of peace of mind for more than 150 years, the Baloise Group, which is headquartered in Basel, provides prevention, pension, investment, assistance and insurance solutions in its core markets of Switzerland, Belgium, Luxembourg and Germany.

Baloise has established a unique business model in Switzerland combining insurance and banking services and is the first Swiss insurer to provide an omnichannel solution for its customers. Through targeted strategic acquisitions and robust organic growth, Baloise has significantly strengthened its market position in both Belgium and Luxembourg. In Germany, it has successfully merged companies, streamlined structures, lowered costs, and improved its business mix.

Simply Safe was the banner under which Baloise launched its new strategy. We successfully completed the first phase of Simply Safe in 2021. Over the four years of Season 2 of our Simply Safe strategy, which is now under way, we will be looking to build on what we have achieved so far by further optimising our core business and refining our business model. We are also aiming to transform the corporate culture so that we can continue to meet customers’ changing needs for safety and services in the digital age.

Sustainability is at the heart of everything that Baloise does as a provider of insurance, pensions and asset management services. Because every day it helps households, companies, economies and communities to function effectively. Sustainability therefore plays a key role both in Baloise’s values-based management and in the Simply Safe corporate strategy.

This ties in with Baloise’s firm conviction that satisfied employees are the key to happy customers, who in turn are what make the business an attractive investment for shareholders. 

We have therefore set ourselves the following ambitious targets for the 2022 to 2025 phase of the strategy, covering the three areas of employees, customers and shareholders: 

• Employees: top 5 per cent of companies to work for in Europe
• Customers: attract 1.5 million additional customers 
• Shareholders: cash upstream of CHF 2 billion to the holding company

We will retain this clear focus as we continue our strategic journey towards sustained profitable growth.
 

Baloise has a strong position in its attractive core markets and a marked diversification of earnings across its operating segments Non-Life, Life, and Asset Management & Banking. Thanks to its industry-leading target customer management, Baloise boasts one of the most profitable portfolios in Europe in the context of non-life business. It is well-positioned in the life insurance sector as regards the challenges of the current low-interest-rate environment, while the Asset Management & Banking division continues to deliver stable and reliable contributions.

Generating cash from operating activities is at the core of Baloise's values-based management system. We are renowned for our attractive and reliable shareholder policy that takes the form of dividend payouts and share buy-backs. Baloise has not once lowered its dividend since 2003 and has instead maintained or increased it from one year to the next. We have also carried out several share buy-backs. Baloise is retaining this clear focus on cash and we have set ourselves the strategic target of transferring a total of CHF 2 billion in cash to the holding company over the period 2022 to 2025. This will protect our attractive and reliable dividend policy and give Baloise greater scope for investing in future growth.

Strong capitalisation, excellent risk management as well as a conservative and forward-looking investment policy have allowed Baloise to safely navigate the financial crises of recent decades. This high degree of capitalisation makes the company resilient to unfavourable market conditions and offers a great degree of financial flexibility. This flexibility enables Baloise to invest in future growth, to benefit from market opportunities, and to continue with the attractive and reliable payout policy offered to its shareholders.

In the context of its “Simply Safe” strategy, Baloise has taken on a leading role in the areas of innovation and digitalisation, and has now even received multiple awards for this. It enters into partnerships with promising fintechs and insurtechs, invests in innovative start-ups, and tests and develops new concepts while optimising existing ones. Here, Baloise focuses on developing ecosystems like “Home” and “Mobility” in addition to its existing insurance activities. This, combined with a high degree of agility and Baloise’s cutting-edge IT systems as well as fully digitised processes in different areas, offers Baloise a competitive advantage on its competitors in an uncertain environment. Moreover, this creates the necessary basis for effectively accommodating changing customer requirements in the age of digitalisation.