Fortis to rebrand and grow

Fortis claims to be in strong position with good capitalisation and will rebrand and concentrate on partnerships, such as its UK deal with Tesco, the company said announcing its structure review.

The company said: “As BNP Paribas has acquired the Fortis brand name, Fortis Group can only use the Fortis brand until May 2011. Fortis has thus started the process of developing a new brand name for the group.

“Fortis will only consider acquisitions that meet these stringent criteria and where it has a competitive advantage due to its existing market presence or because of its ability to secure a strong partnership with a leading distributor such as Tesco in the UK.”

Bart De Smet, CEO of Fortis, said: “After the significant changes that have happened over the last year Fortis has regained stability. The strategic review was an important exercise, which allowed us to review in detail where we are today and where we want to be in the future.

“Management is committed to delivering a solid performance, combining profitability and growth, measured against a set of key performance indicators. We will provide an update of our performance in 2009 in relation to these indicators when we publish our full year 2009 results.

“Having completed this strategic review I feel very confident that we are well positioned to continue to build our franchise as a solid and conservatively managed international insurer with a good balance between stable cash generative activities and exciting growth opportunities built on our well established expertise and partnership skills.”

Fortis will streamline the current portfolio to ensure that, over time, all businesses

• are able to reach a critical size
• make a meaningful contribution to Fortis’ insurance earnings
• generate returns exceeding its cost of equity