Media release
St.Gallen, 5 September 2023
 

MoneyPark and Helvetia plan to solidify their leading position in the Swiss mortgage and real estate  market. The two companies will combine the strengths of their sales forces across Switzerland. Customers will benefit from MoneyPark's mortgage and real estate expertise combined with Helvetia's insurance solutions. This will give more than one million Helvetia customers in Switzerland direct access to MoneyPark services at over 30 locations. 

MoneyPark and Helvetia are jointly pursuing the goal of further strengthening their leading position in the Swiss mortgage and real estate markets. Over the next five years, the two companies plan to significantly increase the annually brokered mortgage volume, which currently stands at over CHF 3 billion. The combined sales strengths of MoneyPark and Helvetia will be leveraged to achieve this goal, subject to the outcome of employee consultations at MoneyPark and the approval of the supervisory authority. The MoneyPark mortgage and real estate brokerage sales network will be expanded and integrated into the Helvetia distribution organisation to achieve targeted growth. Customers will continue to be provided with services under the established MoneyPark brand, both in MoneyPark flagship stores in Zurich, Lausanne and Geneva, and via MoneyPark shop-in-shops in Helvetia's general agencies. This will enable MoneyPark and Helvetia to work together even more effectively and unlock the potential offered by new and existing customers and partners even more successfully. 

Combining leading real estate expertise and an extensive sales network
Helvetia customers will benefit from personalised, independent mortgage and real estate advice in their region, as well as from direct access to mortgage deals from over 150 MoneyPark partners. These can be directly linked to Helvetia pension and insurance solutions. MoneyPark customers will gain access to Helvetia's expertise in pensions and property insurance. Customers of MoneyPark's product and service subsidiary, finovo, will not be affected by the plan. 

In addition to collaborating more closely and continuing to unlock the sales potential within insurance, pension and residential property products, a further aim is to increase efficiency. By pooling resources, cost synergies of CHF 6 to 8 million could be realised starting in 2024, which are expected to result in the reduction of 25 to 30 support roles. The change will see the merging of the two end-user platforms Helvetia ImmoWorld and MoneyPark. Helvetia will write down the value of its investment in MoneyPark by approximately CHF 27 million in the half-year result.

CEO of Helvetia Switzerland Martin Jara believes that the new set-up will offer significant advantages: "I look forward to working even more closely with my colleagues at MoneyPark in the future. Combining MoneyPark's leading real estate expertise with Helvetia's extensive sales network is the right response to the challenging market environment. It allows us to seize new growth opportunities in the Swiss market and to provide customers with comprehensive support and advice on insurance, pension and residential property solutions from a single source. This will enable us to further expand our Home ecosystem and strengthen the fee business in line with the objectives of the helvetia 20.25 strategy." 

Mortgage partners of MoneyPark to benefit 
MoneyPark is also creating new opportunities to further expand its leading product and service platform for independent mortgage and real estate advice. In addition, over one million Helvetia customers will have access to MoneyPark's financing partners. As CEO of MoneyPark Martin Tschopp explains: "Our partners will benefit from the combined growth of MoneyPark and Helvetia. And by taking this step, we can develop new and innovative products and services for our B2B and B2B2C partners." 

About Helvetia Group
Helvetia Group, with its headquarters in St. Gallen, has grown since 1858 to become a successful insurance group with over 12,000 employees and more than 7 million customers. It has been enabling its customers to seize opportunities and minimise risks for all that time – Helvetia is there for them when it matters. Helvetia is the best partner and is present everywhere that protection needs arise, with insurance, pension and investment solutions from a single source as well as simple products and processes. The insurance group knows the business, from mobile phone insurance and insurance cover for the Gotthard Base Tunnel to the long-term investment of customer assets. Helvetia develops and opens up new business models with enthusiasm and drives forward its own business in a powerful and future-oriented manner. It acts with foresight and responsibility in everything it does: for the benefit of its shareholders, customers and employees as well as its partners, society and the environment.
Helvetia is the leading all-lines insurer in Switzerland. In the Europe segment comprising Germany, Italy, Austria and Spain, the company has firmly rooted market positions for generating above-average growth. In the Specialty Markets segment, Helvetia offers tailored special insurance and reinsurance cover worldwide. With a business volume of CHF 11.1 billion, Helvetia generated IFRS net income after tax of CHF 614.4 million in the 2022 financial year. The shares of Helvetia Holding AG are traded on SIX Swiss Exchange.

Cautionary note
This document was prepared by Helvetia Group and may not be copied, altered, offered, sold or otherwise distributed to any other person by any recipient without the consent of Helvetia Group. The German version of this document is decisive and binding. Versions of the document in other languages are made available purely for information purposes. Although all reasonable effort has been made to ensure that the facts stated herein are correct and the opinions contained herein are fair and reasonable, where any information and statistics are quoted from any external source such information or statistics should not be interpreted as having been adopted or endorsed as accurate by Helvetia Group. Neither Helvetia Group nor any of its directors, officers, employees and advisors nor any other person shall have any liability whatsoever for loss howsoever arising, directly or indirectly, from any use of this information. The facts and information contained in this document are as up to date as is reasonably possible but may be subject to revision in the future. Neither Helvetia Group nor any of its directors, officers, employees or advisors nor any other person makes any representation or warranty, express or implied, as to the accuracy or completeness of the information contained in this document.
This document may contain projections or other forward-looking statements related to Helvetia Group which by their very nature involve inherent risks and uncertainties, both general and specific, and there is a risk that predictions, forecasts, projections and other outcomes described or implied in forward-looking statements will not be achieved. We caution you that a number of important factors could cause results to differ materially from the plans, objectives, expectations, estimates and intentions expressed in such forward-looking statements. These factors include: (1) changes in general economic conditions, in particular in the markets in which we operate; (2) the performance of financial markets; (3) changes in interest rates; (4) changes in currency exchange rates; (5) changes in laws and regulations, including accounting policies or practices; (6) risks associated with implementing our business strategies; (7) the frequency, magnitude and general development of insured events; (8) mortality and morbidity rates; (9) policy renewal and lapse rates as well as (10), the realisation of economies of scale as well as synergies. We caution you that the foregoing list of important factors is not exhaustive; when evaluating forward-looking statements, you should carefully consider the foregoing factors and other uncertainties. All forward-looking statements are based on information available to Helvetia Group on the date of its publication and Helvetia Group assumes no obligation to update such statements unless otherwise required by applicable law.