Press Release

21.05.2012

ARAG expands business operations in Scandinavia: New legal insurance market opened in Sweden

The Norwegian legal insurer HELP Forsikring AS, an associate company of the ARAG Group of Düsseldorf, commences business operations in Sweden in May. The firm provides legal insurance services for members of the “Svenska Elektrikerförbundet”(SEF), the Swedish trade union representing employees in the electrical industry. SEF is part of The Swedish Trade Union Confederation (Landsorganisationen i Sverige) which is the umbrella organization for the 14 most influential trade unions in Sweden. ARAG has been active in Norway since 2007 and holds a 44 percent interest in HELP Forsikring AS. That makes the Düsseldorf firm the sole provider of legal insurance in Scandinavia.

”We are continuing to pursue our cautious international expansion and are now striving to establish a foothold in the Swedish market,” says Dr. Paul-Otto Faßbender, Chairman of the Management Board of ARAG SE. “We are firmly convinced that the Scandinavian market offers very strong growth potential.” The family enterprise is relying on the expertise of HELP Forsikring in Oslo, which will now launch business operations in Stockholm and serve the new key account in Sweden.

“This cooperation is a first successful entry into the Swedish market, where – just as in Norway – we are the only specialized legal insurance provider. We cooperate with various trade unions in our home market, and the Norwegian sister union – with which we have been cooperating since 2009 – has gratifyingly recommended us to The Swedish Trade Union Confederation,” explains Johan Dolven, Managing Director of HELP Forsikring AS.

This new cooperation with HELP gives members of the SEF access to private legal insurance within the framework of a group policy. “Presently, we strive to convince additional Swedish unions about the benefits of our products because we have noted an increasing demand for support in legal matters, especially in cases involving inheritance disputes, divorce and problems associated with the sale and purchase of real estate. And we offer our customers much more than mere cost coverage. Policyholders can obtain legal advice through our attorney telephone hotline in advance of judicial proceedings,” adds Johan Dolven.

HELP Forsikring AS was founded in Norway in 2005. The ARAG Group acquired interest in the young company two years later and purchased additional shares in 2008. HELP is active primarily in the private legal insurance market, where it is playing a pioneering role in Scandinavia. Until now, effective legal insurance was not available for cases involving labor, marital, family and dependent-support matters or consumer protection issues.

With the addition of the most populous country in Scandinavia, the ARAG Group is now represented in 14 international markets. At the international level, the Düsseldorf family-owned enterprise is one of the world’s largest legal insurance providers. ARAG earned 706.5 million EUR in premium income in this insurance segment and 1.5 billion EUR in total Group revenue during the last business year. International legal insurance now ranks among the largest business segments, and nearly half of the Group’s roughly 3,500 employees currently work outside of Germany.