Exor can drive PartnerRe to top four spot
PartnerRe believes it can become one of the top four reinsurance companies in the world under the ownership of Italian industrial giant Exor, which finally bought the reinsurer after a prolonged and often bad-tempered battle for the company with Axis.
Speaking at a joint Exor-PartnerRe press conference at the Monte Carlo Rendez-Vous, Emmanuel Clarke, president of PartnerRe, said that the company had ambitions to become one of the pre-eminent leaders in the reinsurance world.
Clarke said that PartnerRe’s objective was to make it into the top four companies, either in terms of capital size or in terms of the quality of the company when it came to delivering credible and effective responses to the needs of its clients around the world.
“I’m sure you have been following the story over the first part of this year,” Clarke said to the assembled journalists. “We have had two months of uncertainty. But this period is now coming to an end and it is a happy ending—but also a new start. We at PartnerRe are looking forward to this new chapter in our history, under the ownership of Exor.”
Clarke said that PartnerRe was looking forward to a new start because it preserves the company’s franchise, culture and relationship with its clients but with the support of its new owners.
Clarke stressed that the deal was a long-term investment by Exor and not a private equity play. He also said that at a time when there are a large number of mergers and acquisitions (M&A) in the market, the Exor purchase would remove PartnerRe from any risk of further
M&A activity and allow it to concentrate on its relationships with its clients.
“Stability also means providing a consistency and continuity of approach to our clients.
Reinsurance is a long-term partnership business and clients do not like surprises,” he said.
John Elkann, chairman and CEO of Exor, declared that his company would be taking a multigenerational, long-term approach to its ownership of PartnerRe and that this was not a short-term arrangement.
This is not the first time Exor has been involved with PartnerRe. As Elkann commented, the Italian company owned part of PartnerRe in the 1990s, before selling it.
