Hannover Re (in GermanHannover Rück) is a reinsurance company based in Hannover, Germany. It is the third-largest reinsurance group in the world, with a gross premium of around €33 billion. Founded in 1966, Hannover Re transacts all lines of property & casualty and life & health reinsurance and has a network of over 170 subsidiaries, branches and representative offices on all five continents with a total staff of more than 3,000. The Group's German business is written by the subsidiary E+S Rück.
History
Hannover Re was founded on 6 June 1966.
In the 1970s, the company entered the US and Japanese markets. In 1981, the company made its first acquisition of a foreign insurance group – the Hollandia Group (now Hannover Re Group Africa). In 1990, the acquisition of Hamburger Internationale Rückversicherungs-AG followed.
In 1994, Hannover Re went public. In the same year, the company was the first reinsurer ever to securitise natural catastrophe risks for the capital market.
In 1996, Eisen und Stahl Rück was integrated into the Hannover Re Group. From then on, Hannover Re serves foreign insurance markets, while Eisen und Stahl Rück – now E+S Rück – takes responsibility for handling the German market.
As part of its increasingly international orientation, the legal form of the company was conversed to a Societas Europaea (European Company) in 2013. Hannover Re has since traded as Hannover Rück SE.
In 2019, Jean-Jacques Henchoz succeeded Ulrich Wallin as Chief Executive Officer of Hannover Re.[5]
Structure
Hannover Re transacts reinsurance in the business groups Property & Casualty and Life & Health.
Property & Casualty: Hannover Re offers a comprehensive range of products in treaty and facultative reinsurance as well as in the area of structured reinsurance solutions.[6]
Life & Health: Hannover Re offers its customers worldwide reinsurance protection in all lines of life and health insurance. It supports clients with the financing of new business and financial optimisation and offers product partnerships for strategic market positioning.[7]
Share and shareholder
The majority shareholder of Hannover Re is Talanx AG with 50.2% of the voting rights. The remaining shares are held by institutional or private investors. Shareholders include investors who pay particularly close attention to sustainability criteria.[8]
Leadership
Members of the Executive Board:[9] Jean-Jacques Henchoz (CEO), Clemens Jungsthöfel (CFO), Sven Althoff (Property & Casualty reinsurance), Sharon Ooi (Property & Casualty reinsurance), Michael Pickel (Property & Casualty reinsurance), Silke Sehm (Property & Casualty reinsurance), Claude Chèvre (Life & Health reinsurance), Dr. Klaus Miller (Life & Health reinsurance).
Members of the Supervisory Board:[10] Torsten Leue (Chairman), Herbert K. Haas, Ilka Hundeshagen, Timo Kaufmann, Harald Kayser, Sibylle Kempff, Alena Kouba, Dr. Ursula Lipowsky, Dr. Michael Ollmann.
Locations
Africa: Abidjan, Johannesburg
The Americas: Bogotá, Denver, Hamilton, Itasca, Mexico City, Orlando, Rio de Janeiro, Toronto
Asia: Hong Kong, Kuala Lumpur, Manama, Mumbai, Seoul, Shanghai, Taipei, Tokyo
Australia: Sydney
Europe: Dublin, Hannover, London, Madrid, Milan, Paris, Stockholm[11]
Hannover Re Foundation
The Hannover Re Foundation was created to mark Hannover Re's 25th anniversary in 1991. Its focus was initially – and remains to this day – on supporting contemporary art and culture in the region, especially through the acquisition of artworks which are made available to the Sprengel Museum Hannover on permanent loan. It also lends its support to other cultural institutions based in the region, such as the Kunstverein Hannover, the Kestner Gesellschaft Hannover, the Museum Wilhelm Busch and the Art Museum of Celle. In 2022 the Foundation substantially expanded its self-defined mandate and amended its statutes. Since taking this step, it has extended its support for art and culture to also include projects relating to sustainability. The emphasis is on projects that – in the global context – promote environmental and climate protection, training and education, science and research as well as preventive protection against natural disasters. This also includes the goal of contributing to the creation of intragenerational justice and leaving behind a liveable world for future generations. Since 2023 the Hannover Re Foundation has additionally assumed responsibility for the "Masterclass Students" exhibition series, which was launched back in 2014 in cooperation with Braunschweig University of Art. Since 2023 the Hannover Re Foundation has its own webpage at https://foundation.hannover-re.com[12]
Hannover Rück SE additionally has its own corporate art collection.
