International insurer MAPFRE is merging its Asia-Pacific and Europe, Middle East, and Africa (EMEA) operations into a new Eurasia unit.
The new organisational structure will be effective at the beginning of 2018. In a press statement, MAPFRE said that the move was “part of the company’s strategy of profitable growth to improve the group’s efficiency and profitability.”
The new Eurasia unit will be headed by current EMEA chief executive Nikos Antimissaris, while current Asia-Pacific CEO Leire Jiménez Ayesa will relocate to the UK after her appointment as CEO of MAPFRE’s Insureandgo and Abraxas businesses there.
The Eurasia region will not include the Iberian markets, including MAPFRE’s home market of Spain.
In the first nine months of 2017, the insurer’s EMEA division wrote €1.39 billion in premiums, while the Asia-Pacific business brought in €56 million.
MAPFRE’s EMEA region has encountered difficulty in recent times, posting a combined ratio of 100.7% for January to September 2017. This was an improvement from the 106% combined ratio for the same period last year. Its Italian operation, Direct Line Italy, posted a combined ratio of 114.2%.
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