Following the sale of its 26% stakes in its Indian life and non-life insurance joint ventures and a binding agreement to form a 50:50 reinsurance venture, Allianz CEO Oliver Bäte said the group always intended to run a domestic business rather than remain a passive investor, and is now looking forward to receiving regulatory approval to launch.
Readers may recall that back in March, the firm agreed to sell its 26% stake in Bajai Allianz General Insurance Company and Bajaj Allianz Life Insurance Company to the Bajaj Group for around €2.6 billion, bringing an end to the joint venture agreements between the German insurer and Bajaj Finserv Ltd., an Indian non-banking financial services company.
Bäte said in a recent media conference call, “We started in India in the year 2001 with our partners Bajaj.
“We brought all the capital ever invested in Bajaj Insurance. All the people ever hired came from Allianz, and all the technology ever deployed.”
He continued, “The problem was, because of regulation, we could only take 26% of the company, and we were running them for a long time with our partners, successfully. The issue was that we always wanted to run this business rather than just invest and build it, and we couldn’t agree with our partners on when and how we could do that.
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“So, at some point, we had the discussion and said, we need two separate ways, because we want to be an operator in one of the most promising growth markets in the world in terms of insurance.
“And we are lucky in two ways. One, we found a very amicable and, for our shareholders, very attractive solution to exit this very long partnership; we are in the process of this. Financially and operationally, it’s a very amicable separation, and it’s very good for us.”
As mentioned, Jio Financial Services Limited and Allianz, through its wholly owned subsidiary, Allianz Europe B.V., recently entered into a binding agreement to form a 50:50 domestic reinsurance joint venture, marking entry into the Indian high-growth insurance market.
Jio is an Indian financial services company based in Mumbai, and was originally a subsidiary of Reliance Industries.
Bäte explained that Allianz chose Reliance because it is India’s most powerful private company and a global innovator, pointing to its 700 million mobile users and 70% market share.
He said the firm is looking forward to building a broad insurance and protection partnership in India.
“We’ve just launched the first piece of it, reinsurance. People ask, Why reinsurance? Very simple, because we have a non-compete, because we haven’t had a reinsurance partnership with Bajaj before. So, there’s also no confusion for business partners and clients. So, that’s the first chapter, Bäte added.
He continued, “Now, as we run the separation, just think about very operational things like taking the Allianz brand off Bajaj offices, that takes quite a little bit of time.
“We expect by the first quarter of next year to be able to launch, maybe the second quarter. The next chapter is Commercial lines, then Retail Property/Casualty and then health insurance. We always look at it, not just at the insurance component, but also at leveraging our platform businesses. We will work with partners. We will work with the new services that we’ve been developing over the last few years, because that’s what we both believe is needed. We are super excited, and we’re building it up.
“Also, the government has been super supportive. We’ve received all the necessary approvals that we needed for the exit from Bajaj, and now we’re looking forward to getting the approvals for launching the new businesses. So, all good for the moment. Let’s keep fingers crossed, too. We always need a little bit of luck as well.”
Earlier today, Allianz reported that its total business volume increased by 8% year-on-year to €44.5 billion in the second quarter of 2025, as operating profit across the Group rose 12% to €4.4 billion, with a particularly strong performance in the property and casualty segment.
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