Sweden’s SEBÂ is to combine its Baltic life insurance businesses into one company in order to simplify the organization’s operation model, the banking organization said July 13.
In the three Baltic countries, SEB has three legal entities, SEB Life and Pension Insurance in Estonia, SEB Dzivibas Apdrosinasana in Latvia, and SEB Gyvybes Draudimas in Lithuania, as well as the Riga branch of a foreign company, Life and Pension Holding AB, which manages life and pension insurance responsibilities in the Baltics.
SEB will combine the three legal entities operating in the Baltic life insurance business into one company, the Riga branch of the foreign company Life and Pension Holding AB will be terminated, and the new company will be named SEB Life and Pension Baltic SE, SEBÂ said.
The headquarters of the new company will be located in Riga, its branches in Estonia and Lithuania. It is expected that the consolidation process will be completed by early 2019.
“In view of the demographic and economic situation, the need of SEB’s clients for life insurance and retirement benefits will continue to increase in the future. The merger of companies is a decision that allows, in the long run, offering our customers the best solutions in the three Baltic countries and for us to be an even better service provider,” said Indrek Holst, chairman of the management board of SEB Life and Pension Insurance.
“SEB has offered pension and life insurance solutions in Sweden, the Baltics, and 12 more countries all over the world for a long time. The needs of customers are not different across countries, they are rather similar, therefore, in a longer perspective, it is important how efficiently we are able to apply the knowledge, expertise and experience of different countries across borders. This can be done much more efficiently in the Baltic states within one company,” Holst said.
SEB is now starting legal procedure for the merger. The consolidation process will not have an impact on customer services, the banking group said.
SEB’s Baltic life insurance companies offer a wide range of life insurance and savings solutions and have 198,000 customers. Baltic life insurance companies have a total market share of 27 percent and assets worth 542 million euros.
Source: https://eng.lsm.lv/article/economy/banks/seb-to-merge-baltic-insurance-businesses.a285501/