AXA Insurance Company
Business Summary
AXA is headquartered in Paris, France. The firm has seven segments; Europe, Asia, AXA AL, Central holdings, Transversal and the US. AXA provides a variety of products, which include life and savings, property and casualty, asset management and banking products. AXA is one of the leading companies in providing financial services in America; it assists Americans in planning for their retirement and the wealth will be transferred to future generations. The firm is indirectly a full subsidiary of Holdings. Holdings made an initial public offer (IPO), after which AXA sold its ordinary shares to the public. Currently, Holdings is a subsidiary company, since AXA reduced its shares to 48.3%.
Company History
AXA was established in 1816 under the name Mutuelle de L’assurance contre L’incedie. In 1978 it bought Compagnie Parisienne de Garantie and renamed it to Mutuelles Unies. Later in 1982, it bought Drouot Group and renamed Mutuelles Unies/Drouot. The firm decided to use the name AXA in 1985. American Insurance Company was bought in 1991 and they inserted the word Equitable in their business name. Union des Assurance De Paris (UAP) was bought in 1996 and they renamed business as Axa-UAP. Three years later, they reverted to the name AXA. In February 199, the firm purchased Guardian Royal Exchange. AXA increased its shareholding to 100% to fully own SunLife &Provincial Holdings in May 2000. The firm bought Winterthur Group on June 14, 2006. Winterthur Group was the leading Swiss Insurance Company. The company increased its shareholding to acquire Bermuda on September 12, 2018, fully; Bermuda was part of the XL Group. The firm plans to have an initial public offer on New York Exchange for AXA-Equitable Holding Inc. AXA are still negotiating with Fairfax Financial Holdings Limited so that it disposed of its insurance activities in Ukraine. Don't use plagiarised sources.Get your custom essay just from $11/page
Organization Chart Structure
Organization structure represents the hierarchy of power from the top to the lower level. AXA has several organization charts depending on regions. The organization chart below is based on Europe, indicating AXA on top and other subsidiaries and wholly-owned subsidiary below.
Board of Directors and Executive Managers
The board of directors is comprised of fifteen members as of April 2019. There are seven men and eight women on the board of whom eight are France nationals and seven from other countries. One of the board members has to be an employee shareholder, according to French Law. Shareholder selects the employee shareholder after every four years. Besides, there are two directors as representatives of employees.
The Board of directors contributes to formulating strategies to help the organization achieve its objectives. The Board ensures implementation of the company objectives by providing oversight for the Executive. Besides, they have additional responsibilities. They appoint and fire the Chairman, Chief Executive Officer, Vice Chairman and Deputy Chief Executive Officer. The board determines the suitable governance framework. They arrange for the Shareholder’s meeting and suggest the director who will be appointed. Besides, the board present corporate governance report performs the duty of directors, give a proposal for Statutory auditor to be elected, reviews policies and strategies of the executives and ensure Group’s compensation principles are followed.
The chairman of the board of directors leads directors and acts as a link between the Executives and directors. According to French law, the Chairman has the responsibility of organizing a board of directors meeting and follow up to see directors perform their work. The current Chairman is Mr. Denis Duverne; he was appointed due to his experience.
AXA Chief Executive Officer is Mr. Thomas Buberl; he was appointed on September 1st, 2016. The CEO has the largest power and responsibilities for the company and the relationship with the third parties. The Chief Executive Officer exercises power as provided by the company and as expressly implied by law.
Products and Services
AXA provides a variety of insurance products in France, including casualty and health, property and life and saving. The insurance cover comprises a range of products such as household, motor, property, general liability insurance, savings vehicles, insurance products in relation to investments for personal and groups, retirement products, protection products and health products. The firm plans to develop products that will provide benefits to employees.
Prices of Products and Services
AXA has a variety of services and products which have differing prices. A firm sets customer-friendly prices and has helped the trust and loyalty to its brand from them. The company sets single pricing for similar products. The firm conducts thorough research on prices from its competitors before deciding on the price of a product; it has enabled the company to charge a higher price for its premium products. Price strategy has enabled the company to compete competitively.
Competitors
The competitors pose a threat to the success of a firm. AXA top competitors include Allianz, Prudential, Zurich, AIG, Allstate, Chubb, Liberty Mutual, CNA, MetLife and MassMutual. The competitors offer similar brands and the Chief Executive Officer has to develop strategies to curb the threat. Failure of the firm to adopt appropriate measures may lead to loss of market share, occasioning a loss to the firm. The managers will have a challenging task in setting prices and maintaining the quality of the products.
Financial Statements
Conclusion
AXA is headquartered in Paris, France. The firm has seven segments; Europe, Asia, AXA AL, Central holdings, Transversal and the US. AXA provides a variety of products, which include life and savings, property and casualty, asset management and banking products. AXA was founded as Mutuelle in 2016 and all along has acquired other companies. After every acquisition, there was the renaming of the business name but finally settled with the name AXA. The company has complex organization structures that are different for every region. AXA board of directors comprise of fifteen directors. The board has the power to appoint executives and fire them. AXA makes an effective pricing decision. The firm faces stiff competition from many competitors. The overall operating ratio for 2017 (-164%) indicates the firm was able to generate profit from investment and underwriting activities, while in 2018 (100%), the firm did neither make profit nor losses from investment activities.