Austria, CEE & Russia: a growth engine for the Group

Video interview with Luciano Cirinà, Austria, CEE & Russia Regional Officer and CEO of Generali CEE Holding. Luciano Cirinà comments on our region in connection with digital transformation, further development on Russian market, asset management strategy or importance of sustainability.

Our region represents young and dynamic markets, with a huge potential. The potential of this markets results from their low insurance penetration compared with the average western European one and, of course, the overall general economic growth.

I’m proud to say that we are a significant profit engine for the Group: as a matter of fact we are the second biggest net profit contributor in 2018. We have a proven track record of profitable growth and we are the most profitable insurance Group in the region. We are ready to capture market opportunities, thanks to our strong market position and a highly efficient regional platform.

We further reinforced our position in the region through selective acquisitions of important insurance and investment players on the Slovene and Polish market. You remember Adriatic Slovenica in Slovenia, Concordia and Union Investment in Poland.

From an organic growth perspective, we believe that accelerated deployment of modular products and the potential of SMEs segment will be important drivers of growth.

Asset management is an integral part of our Group’s positioning and is becoming more and more relevant to complement the life insurance offer for the retail clients with standalone investments products.

Russian market

We are definitely interested in looking at the Russian market. Last year we implemented the first tangible step on our own, by opening our representative office in Moscow, and this year we coupled it with a new established broker: the entity which is dedicated exclusively to the B2B2C market. For us it’s fundamental to have our own team on the ground in order to make sure that we have our own local expertise.

On top of that, we are in charge of a region where we have a participation into Ingosstrakh, which is one of the leading companies of the Russian market and with whom we have cooperated for decades. Nevertheless, we will evaluate all possible options, open to enter the market.

Digital transformation

We will drive digital transformation across the region in order to deliver to our customers the Lifetime Partner promise. We have already launched several transformational programs in order to equip our own strong sales network with digital tools, to increase efficiency through automation and paperless processing, and deliver modern, integrated and flexible IT environments.

The digital transformation program, together with our IT target architecture and core processes target models, will drive force towards and will go hand in hand to support and accompany each of our business units on that individual journey to a highly digitalized insurance company.

Importance of Sustainability

In our region we are fully aware of the importance of sustainability and therefore we strive to integrate it into our daily business. We pay special attention to topics such as climate change, responsible investments. And we live the communities: for example, The Human Safety Net initiative has been activated already in eight countries of our region. It is our contribution to co-create a society where everyone has the opportunity for a better life.