Gjensidige Forsikring ASA is a

Norwegian Norwegian, Norwayan, or Norsk may refer to: *Something of, from, or related to Norway, a country in northwestern Europe *Norwegians, both a nation and an ethnic group native to Norway *Demographics of Norway *The Norwegian language, including the ...

insurance company Insurance is a means of protection from financial loss in which, in exchange for a fee, a party agrees to compensate another party in the event of a certain loss, damage, or injury. It is a form of risk management, primarily used to hedge ...

. The company traces its roots back to 1816 when a

fire Fire is the rapid oxidation of a material (the fuel) in the exothermic chemical process of combustion, releasing heat, light, and various reaction Product (chemistry), products. At a certain point in the combustion reaction, called the ignition ...

mutual was founded as ''Land Gjensidige Brandkasse'' in what is today Innlandet county. Gjensidige

demutualised Demutualization is the process by which a customer-owned mutual organization (''mutual'') or co-operative changes legal form to a joint stock company. It is sometimes called stocking or privatization. As part of the demutualization process, member ...

and listed on the

Oslo Stock Exchange Oslo Stock Exchange ( no, Oslo Børs) (OSE: OSLO) is a stock exchange within the Nordic countries and offers Norway’s only regulated markets for securities trading today. The stock exchange offers a full product range including equities, deriv ...

in December 2010. The firm,

headquartered Headquarters (commonly referred to as HQ) denotes the location where most, if not all, of the important functions of an organization are coordinated. In the United States, the corporate headquarters represents the entity at the center or the top ...

Oslo Oslo ( , , or ; sma, Oslove) is the capital and most populous city of Norway. It constitutes both a county and a municipality. The municipality of Oslo had a population of in 2022, while the city's greater urban area had a population of ...

, has a market share of some 26% (2021) in the Norwegian insurance market. The company has 36 branch offices in Norway, not including affiliated fire mutuals, and 1 million customers. Gjensidige has subsidiaries in

Denmark ) , song = ( en, "King Christian stood by the lofty mast") , song_type = National and royal anthem , image_map = EU-Denmark.svg , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Danish Realm, Kingdom of Denmark ...

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic country located on ...

and

The Baltics The Baltic states, et, Balti riigid or the Baltic countries is a geopolitical term, which currently is used to group three countries: Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania. All three countries are members of NATO, the European Union, the Eurozone, ...

. The company offers all kinds of

insurance Insurance is a means of protection from financial loss in which, in exchange for a fee, a party agrees to compensate another party in the event of a certain loss, damage, or injury. It is a form of risk management, primarily used to hedge ...

for retail customers, agriculture and business. It also offers

pensions A pension (, from Latin ''pensiō'', "payment") is a fund into which a sum of money is added during an employee's employment years and from which payments are drawn to support the person's retirement from work in the form of periodic payments ...

and

savings Wealth is the abundance of valuable financial assets or physical possessions which can be converted into a form that can be used for transactions. This includes the core meaning as held in the originating Old English word , which is from an I ...

products.

History

Although the company traces its roots back to 1816, the brand name Gjensidige originates from the life insurance company Christiania almindelige gjensidige forsørgelsesanstalt that was established in 1847. In the early 1970s the p&c-company traded under the name

Samtrygd Samtrygd was an insurance company based in Oslo, Norway. It was founded as Samtrygd, Norsk Gjensidige Forsikringsforening in 1922 as a reinsurance company for 260 smaller fire treasuries. From 1958 it developed several types of general insurance. ...

, whereas the life insurance company had simplified its name to Gjensidige Liv. The two companies formed a strategic alliance in 1976, adopting Gjensidige as a joint brand name, but as both companies were mutually owned they did not merge. In 1992 Gjensidige acquired Forenede Forsikring and in 1993 Gjensidige Bank was created with

bank A bank is a financial institution that accepts deposits from the public and creates a demand deposit while simultaneously making loans. Lending activities can be directly performed by the bank or indirectly through capital markets. Because ...

ing services. In 1999 Gjensidige and the savings bank

Sparebanken NOR Union Bank of Norway branded as Sparebanken NOR was Norway's largest savings bank between 1990 and 1999. The bank was created as a merger between Sparebanken ABC and four other regional savings banks. The new bank had its headquarters in Oslo and ...

created the Gjensidige NOR-group. The Group was a strategic alliance between mutually owned companies. When Gjensidige NOR merged with

Den norske Bank Den norske Bank or DnB was a Norwegian bank that existed between 1990 and 2003 when it merged with Gjensidige NOR to form DnB NOR (now DNB ASA). The bank's headquarters were in Bergen, Norway. DnB was created as a merger between Bergen Bank and ...

in 2003 to form

DnB NOR DNB ASA (formerly DnB NOR ASA) is Norway's largest financial services group with total combined assets of more than NOK 1.9 trillion and a market capitalisation NOK 164 billion as of 20 May 2016. DNB's head office is located in Oslo. The two lar ...

, Gjensidige Forsikring remained an independent company. In 2007 Gjensidige acquired shares in

Storebrand Storebrand is a financial services company in Norway. By volume, the company's main activities are related to life insurance and pension savings. However, the company also has major divisions working on investments, banking and, until 1999 and ...

, and for some time held the position as the number one shareholder with 24.33% of the stock. The entire shareholding was sold in 2014. In 2010 Gjensidige demutualised and was listed on the

. The Gjensidige Foundation is the largest owner with some 62 percent of the shares.

References

* https://www.gjensidige.no/group/annual-report

External links

*
Lithuanian branch

Denmark branch

Latvian branch

Estonian branch
{{Authority control Financial services companies of Norway Mutual insurance companies Cooperatives in Norway Norwegian companies established in 1923 Financial services companies established in 1923 Companies based in Oslo Companies listed on the Oslo Stock Exchange

History

See also

References

External links