A wide range of products

PEDRO SEIXAS VALE Managing Director of Allianz

CLEAR-HEADED decisions by foreign companies and by the banks will determine how Portugal’s insurance sector looks in the future, according to Pedro Seixas Vale, Managing Director of Allianz Portugal.
“Some of the foreign companies who are failing to get a minimum of market share will leave the country,” he says. “International insurance companies that own firms that are not producing enough of a return will sell them. Portugal is not a country of strategic importance for them.

“As for the Portuguese companies, their future depends not on the insurance market, but on changes in the banking sector, because they are owned by the banks. Some of the medium-sized banks may not remain as they have for the past ten years.”
Allianz Portugal itself, part of the Allianz Group of Germany, was formed from the merger of five existing companies and in recent years has become one of the top five insurance firms in the market. Its own banking partner is BPI
(Banco Português de Investimento), which holds a 35 percent stake.

“We have made progress with our main targets,” says Dr. Seixas Vale. “Of course, if opportunities arise—possibilities of buying new companies on the market—we will try to profit from them. I feel that in two or three years the market will start a new concentration process.”
While BPI sells savings products, Allianz concentrates on traditional and more profitable insurance products, including life, motor, workers’ compensation, fire and multi-risk insurance. It serves both individual and corporate clients.
“In both areas, we try to give our clients the widest possible range of products possible, rather than being very specific with one product or another,” says the company’s MD.
He sees growing awareness of a need for an alternative to the public health system as an opportunity for the whole market.

“More and more people want to be assured of quality and some insurance programs provide a real alternative,” he says.
“According to the latest statistics, almost 20 percent of the Portuguese population now has a private health scheme. Allianz made a strategic step in that direction when we started to be involved in health insurance schemes after 1999.”
In conjunction with its insurance activities, one way in which Allianz Portugal has made an impression is through its support for cultural and sporting activities, particularly football.
The Allianz Group’s sponsorship of the Formula 1 Championship has helped the company’s profile in Portugal. “It has made a very positive impact in the market and with our clients,” says Dr. Seixas Vale.