Brazil Country facts Annual growth in GDP over the last three years: 4% GDP per head: USD 12,339 Price per litre of petrol: USD 1.38 Cars per thousand inhabitants: 178 Road network in kilometres: 885,157 Number of newly registered vehicles in 2012: around 3.6 million Interesting facts about Talanx The following report looks at our colleagues at HDI Seguros S. A.. Hannover Rückversicherung AG Escritorio de Represençáo no Brasil Ltda., Rio de Janeiro Brazil is one of Hannover Re s most important markets in Latin America. The company opened a representative office in Rio de Janeiro as soon as the reinsurance monopoly was abolished in 2008, and is represented there as an authorised reinsurer. Main areas of business: Motor insurance, property/casualty insurance, non-life reinsurance This QR code will reveal pictures of the Talanx Group s Brazilian site.
Talanx Group. Annual Report 2012 29 São Paulo The largest city in Brazil and a symbol of the economic boom. The record world champion Brazil will next year host the football World Cup for the second time since 1950. Despite its extraordinary architecture, however, the Estádio Pacaembu will not be used as a venue.
BRAZIL/SÃO PAULO On the up Brazil s economy has been booming for a long time. Increasing demand for insurance has allowed Talanx to gain a good position in the market through proximity to customers and efficient processes. Murilo Riedel is lucky, as he only needs 30 minutes to get to work in the mornings. That s very little for São Paulo, where most people s journeys take three times as long. However, even Murilo Riedel often ends up in traffic jams on his sevenkilometre journey. São Paulo is not the Amazon region and going at a crawl is there fore normal a Brazilian news paper has calculated that the seven million cars, motorcycles, buses and trucks on São Paulo s streets would reach as far as Kabul if placed bumper to bumper. Riedel, a Member of the Board of Management of HDI Seguros, Talanx s Brazilian subsidiary, sees something positive in this hypothetical calculation despite the traffic problems: Brazil s economy is continuing to grow, even if the rate of growth slowed somewhat in 2012. More and more people are escaping relative poverty and can afford a certain standard of living. Brazil overtook the UK as the world s sixth-largest economy in 2011, and is now the world s fourth-biggest market for car sales according to the Brazilian National Association of Vehicle Manufacturers (Anfavea). 40 million people have joined Brazil s middle class in the last decade. Once they have covered their basic needs, the next thing many people want to buy is their first car, Murilo Riedel says, and naturally they need suitable insurance. This new Bra- zilian middle class, with its small and medium-sized cars, makes up HDI Seguros clientele. 87% of the premium volume of USD 1 billion comes from private motor insurance, while the rest comes from homeowners insurance and industrial insurance, among other sources. HDI Seguros acts as a front office for the head office in Hannover in the field of industrial insurance, i.e. it underwrites insurance business and cedes it to the Group s reinsurance subsidiary HDI-Gerling Welt Service AG in Germany wherever possible. Until 2008, state regulation had meant that a Brazilian company virtually had a monopoly on the reinsurance market. However, the market has been liberalised.
Talanx Group. Annual Report 2012 31 Left View of HDI Seguros office building in São Paulo. Centre Colleagues are welcomed by the HDI logo. Right Around 400 employees work at the São Paulo site. Below Fabio Leme, left, and Murilo Riedel, right, have their eye on the markets Brazil s insurance market is growing steadily.»once they have covered their basic needs, the next thing many people want to buy is their first car.«a new ring road is being built in São Paulo, for example. If Brazil maintains an economic growth rate of 3% in the coming years, it could overtake France in 2014, the year of the football World Cup. Experts have long since stopped calling Brazil an emerging country, and instead describe the country as a high-growth market. According to figures from Lloyd s for 2011, Brazil s non-life insurance market accounts for around 2% of gross domestic product and is thus on a par with other countries. This figure is about 4% in Germany and the USA and approximately 2% in Japan. Domestic operators are the market leaders in the sector. However, HDI Seguros is already the country s seventh-largest provider of motor insurance. We have very efficient processes and a set-up that ensures proximity to customers, says Murilo Riedel, explaining the company s prominent place in the rankings. He believes the secret lies in the combination of a physical presence throughout the country and digital processing. All insurance policies are concluded online, but are managed locally via 13,900 independent brokers, supported by 65 branches throughout Brazil. Claims are processed by 40 claims centres Brazil is so important to us because it has one of the fastest-growing economies, the Group has had a local presence there for years and operates in a wide variety of lines of business, says Matthias Maak, a Member of the Board of Management of Talanx International AG, justifying the Group s commitment to the South American country. Its potential seems to be far from exhausted. Interest rates are falling, new oil fields have been discovered, the population will soon reach the 200-million mark and the government is investing heavily in expanding infrastructure
BRAZIL/SÃO PAULO The 138-metre high Estaiada Bridge attests to the high level of investment in infrastructure. Bate Pronto in HDI terminology which are located in cities where HDI has a high concentration of insured vehicles. If a customer has a problem, he can call the regional claims centre or submit a claim report using HDI Seguros specially developed app for smart phones. HDI Seguros will let the customer know within 30 minutes whether it can accept the claim, and will give the customer details of the most conveniently located garage. The claims centres then take over further processing. Three quarters of all claims are settled within 15 days, says Murilo Riedel. The head office can check the conclusion of policies online, down to the last click. If»We have very efficient processes and a set-up that ensures proximity to customers.«a broker s performance is significantly be - low average, the head office can look into the reasons. It may be that a diffe rent pri cing policy is needed for the specific re - gion in which that broker operates, for example, says Murilo Riedel. We then need to take action together with the broker. There are huge regional differences in Brazil. HDI Seguros provides over 900,000 quotes every month through its brokers. The closing ratio ranges from 15% to 30%, depending on the region. While HDI has been established in southern Brazil for over 30 years and its brand is in a strong
Talanx Group. Annual Report 2012 33 Long tailbacks continue to dominate the cityscape. São Paulo is the country s economic powerhouse. Large insurance companies, as well as large car manufacturers, have their head offices here. Volkswagen and Mercedes have plants in São Paulo, as do Fiat and Toyota. Delivery times can be up to three months for sought-after models, and there is still a gap between demand and investment by major manufacturers. of infrastructure progresses and traffic in São Paulo starts to flow more smoothly in the future, perhaps even his modest 30-minute journey to the office will be - come quicker.»three quarters of all claims are settled within 15 days.«position there, it has been operating in the north e. g. the Amazon region only since 2006. The 400 employees at the head office in São Paulo pull all the strings, setting the course for further ex - pansion in the country and communicating with brokers, for example via Facebook and Twitter. Besides up-to-date information on premium rates, tweets provide tips on car maintenance such as Poorly adjusted injection can damage your catalytic converter or Have your wheels balanced regularly. Brazil is a young country with a young population, and the popularity of new techno logies is correspondingly high. This helps to prevent claims, and customers feel that they are well looked after. New manufacturers are forcing their way into the Brazilian market, and growing numbers of Asian cars are appearing in all major cities. The increasing density of traffic is leading to more accidents, al - though they tend to be less serious. There has therefore been no rise in average claims loss. Murilo Riedel is confident that HDI Seguros will be able to expand its market position further. The company currently has a share of around 7% in the motor insurance market. And if the expansion Top An employee documents an accident claim. Below This will be processed further at the claims centre.