24 April 2017 - Zurich Malaysia (Zurich Insurance Malaysia Berhad (ZIMB) and Zurich Takaful Malaysia Berhad (ZTMB)) – is poised to play a bigger role, says CEO of ZIMB and Executive Director of ZTMB, Philip Smith.

This is on the back of the company’s solid foundation established after successfully acquiring Malaysian Assurance Alliance Berhad (“MAA”) in 2011 and assimilating it into the Zurich Group as ZIMB. A clash of culture is one of the main reasons for a merger or acquisition to fail to achieve the planned benefits. When this occurs, employee morale can drop, key individuals may leave and the proposed synergies fail to materialise.

“The acquisition of MAA marked a significant milestone for Zurich Insurance Group (Zurich), a leading global insurer. Once the acquisition was completed, we began the task of integrating Zurich values and ways of working into the acquired organization. I think today, five and a half years later on there is a different feel among our employees; over 65% of whom were employees of MAA at the time of acquisition. Zurich’s culture focuses on teamwork and accountability amongst other things and I believe that many of our employees appreciate this and have bought into these cultural values.” says Smith.

He adds that even before the acquisition in 2011, Zurich had always regarded Malaysia as a priority market and capitalised on the opportunity to acquire 100% of MAA in 2011. Back then; Zurich had a 40% stake in MCIS Zurich Insurance Berhad (now known as MCIS Insurance Berhad), a stake that was subsequently sold in 2014 to comply with Bank Negara Malaysia’s regulations which do not allow shareholders to have substantial stakes in more than one insurance company. Zurich retains a 100% stake in ZIMB and in June 2016 acquired 100% of MAA Takaful Berhad (“MAAT”), a leading Takaful provider in the country, which was later renamed to ZTMB.

“The decision to acquire MAA may have surprised industry observers as Zurich had been more focused on building businesses from scratch rather than acquiring a 43 year old company (MAA was founded in 1968) in Asia Pacific. MAA’s holding company, MAA Holdings Berhad, was looking to divest its interests in financial services as the demands for capital were increasingly difficult to meet. MAA was seen as a risky acquisition by many market players but after five-and-a-half years, I can say that Zurich has been rewarded for its decision to carry out this transaction,” says Smith, who has played a leading role in fulfilling Zurich’s ambitions in Malaysia.

Zurich is headquartered in Zurich, Switzerland, where it was founded in 1872. With about 54,000 employees around the world, it provides a wide range of property and casualty, and life insurance products and services in more than 210 countries and territories. Customers include individuals, small businesses, mid-sized and large companies as well as multinational corporations, including many household names.

In the highly competitive global insurance industry, Zurich, a highly valued brand, leads the commercial insurance market in the UK and Switzerland and maintains a strong position in the US and Germany. It has a strong, growing presence in Latin America and its business in Asia Pacific, although small, is stable and growing.