3/27/2023 – Over three dozen of the 50 largest providers in motor insurance expanded their portfolios between 2016 and 2021. Huk-Coburg-Allgemeine grew the strongest in absolute terms. Measured in percentage terms – due to the merger – the provincial was ahead by a nose, as the “Industry Monitor 2016-2021: Motor Insurance” from VERS Leipzig shows.
The inventory of the General Association of the German Insurance Industry eV (GDV) organized motor insurers increased by more than a ninth to 127.1 million contracts from 2016 to 2021.
However, ten of the 50 largest providers in terms of premium income recorded declines. At its peak, the losses amounted to around 645,000 contracts or 52 percent – in each case Allianz Direct Versicherungs-AG (Insurance Journal 1.3.2023).
This is shown by the “Industry Monitor 2016-2021: Motor Insurance”. The analysis of V.E.R.S. Leipzig GmbH contains overviews of numerous key figures of the 50 largest market players in this branch with a market share of around 87 percent.
Huk-Coburg-Allgemeine grew the most
The biggest plus in absolute terms was for the Huk-Coburg General Insurance Company with 2.12 million pieces to book. The Provincial Insurance Ltd and the Huk24 AG.
Seven-digit increases also had the Generali Deutschland Versicherung AGdie VHV General Insurance Ltd and the LVM Agricultural Insurance Association Münster aG to record.
The stocks of the Kravag General Insurance Companythe WGV Insurance Ltd as well as the DEVK General Insurance Company.
Huk companies mostly profitable despite strong growth
The growth winner Huk-Coburg-Allgemeine added around 350,000 contracts in the worst year in the period under review. At its peak, it was more than half a million. Incidentally, the company is also one of the fast-growing market participants in the general liability segment (March 9, 2023).
However, one cannot speak of “growth at any price” here. With one exception, the combined damage-cost ratio was always between 97 and 86 percent in the observation period (February 15, 2022). Only in the year marked by the severe storm events “Elvira” and “Friederike” (June 6, 2016, June 17, 2016) was the combined ratio slightly above 100 percent.
The strong growth at the sister company Huk24 did not come at the expense of profitability either. The company, which gained between 215,000 and 420,000 contracts annually, ended up in the black underwriting without exception. The combined claims-cost ratio was between 82 and 96 percent (11/16/2020).
Mergers drive growth at Generali and Provincial
If you look at the rates of change, the plus was the largest for the Provinzial at almost 120 percent. The development is particularly due to the merger of Westfälische provincial Versicherung AG into provincial Rheinland Versicherung AG, which was then renamed provincial Versicherung AG (December 13, 2021).
It should also be noted that for 2016 to 2020 the figures of the provincial Rhineland were compared with the 2021 figures of the “new” provincial. In this respect, comparability is severely limited.
The plus of Generali Deutschland of 60 percent was largely due to the restructuring of the group and the merger of Generali and Aachenmünchener (October 25, 2018, October 23, 2018). However, the company also grew in all other years of the period under review, by up to around six percent. Most recently, it went up by less than 0.5 percent twice.
Other players with high growth rates
They achieved growth rates of around 50 percent each Nuremberg General Insurance Company, the WGV, the Huk24 and the Kravag-General. By about 40 percent Savings Bank Direct Insurance Ltd (S-Direkt) to a good third the Itzehoer insurance/brand guild from 1691 VVaG.
While S-Direkt lost around one percent of its stock in 2018, in addition to Huk24, Kravag-Allgemeine, WGV, Itzehoer and Nürnberger were also able to increase continuously. Kravag has recently grown with around 200,000 contracts each, significantly more than at the beginning of the period under review with around 100,000.
At WGV, on the other hand, the pace of growth has recently halved to less than five percent, while Itzehoer has increased by at least four and at best eight percent. In 2018 and 2019, the Nuremberg company even achieved double-digit growth rates.
Reference
Most of the market sizes with at least four million contracts in the portfolio grew above the market average of eleven percent (March 27, 2023).
The “Industry Monitor 2016-2021: Motor Insurance” contains numerous other key figures on the insurance branch. For the approximately 200-page version of the motor vehicle (liability, other and total) 1,350.65 euros are due including VAT. It can be ordered from Maik Entrich by email or by phone on 0341 24659262.
