11.09.2015
ARAG to Expand its Scandinavian Business
Group launches operations in Denmark
ARAG SE of Düsseldorf is expanding its business in Scandinavia as of 1 October 2015. HELP Forsikring, ARAG's Norwegian subsidiary, will then start business in Denmark through a branch based in Copenhagen. HELP Forsikring plans to cooperate with the Skandia Group in the process of introducing its products in Denmark. Founded early this year, HELP Forsikring is headed by Kristian Nordbye Bentsen.
"With Denmark, we have now added a third Scandinavian market alongside Norway and Sweden as we continue to pursue our Scandinavian expansion strategy," explains Dr. Paul-Otto Faßbender, Chairman and CEO of ARAG SE. "We are convinced that Denmark offers very promising growth potential, since legal insurance is still unknown as a stand-alone product there."
Thus the starting point for ARAG in Denmark is quite similar to that in Norway and Sweden. When HELP Forsikring launched business operations in Norway in 2005, the legal insurance market in that country was virtually non-existent, but business has grown continuously since then. At last count, premium income had risen to 36 million EUR. HELP Forsikring has been a fully-owned subsidiary of ARAG SE since 2013.
"Just as in Norway and Sweden, we are the only provider specialized in legal insurance in Denmark, and we will be in an excellent position to impress consumers with innovative products of superior quality, thus making legal insurance attractive for consumers in Denmark as well," explains Kristian Nordbye Bentsen, Country Manager of HELP Forsikring, branch of HELP Forsikring Norway. Mr. Bentsen (41) has been active in the Danish insurance industry for the past ten years, during which he has worked for AIG and Aon, among other firms.
Skandia in Denmark is part of the Swedish Skandia Group, one of Scandinavia's largest companies in the long-term savings, personal insurance and banking industry. The company offers in Denmark innovative solutions for lifestyle disease and stress prevention, health insurance and company pension schemes. In the future, the product range will be extended to include legal assistance in the event of disputes or legal proceedings relating to private law, including family, inheritance, identity theft or consumer legal issues, for example.
With the addition of Denmark, the ARAG Group is now represented in a total of 16 markets and is thus one of the largest legal insurance providers in the world. ARAG reported 787 million EUR in premium income in the legal insurance segment and total Group revenues of over 1.6 billion EUR in fiscal year 2014. Nearly half of ARAG's 3,700 employees work outside of Germany.