Martin Ebner Owns 20% Of Swiss Insurer

by Ulrika Lomas, Tax-News.com, Brussels

22 January 2002

Swiss financier Martin Ebner announced at the annual press conference of his holding company BZ Group that his stake in Swiss insurance company Baloise had crossed the 20% threshold and that a formal disclosure would be made shortly.

The doubling of Mr Ebner's stake in Baloise comes less than a month after Zurich Financial Services (ZFS), Baloise's biggest shareholder, sold a 21% per cent stake to a Dutch investment group. ZFS, which had bought its holding from Rene Braginsky, another Swiss corporate raider, retains a 6% stake.

The combination of the stakes of ZFS, Mr Ebner and the Dutch investors, none of them likely to think of themselves as long term holders, is close to 50% of Baloise's share capital, and has heightened speculation that Baloise will shortly be 'in play'.

Headquartered in Basel (Switzerland) and with operations in Europe, the Baloise Group says it is a solutions provider in the fields of risk insurance, provision for the future and asset management. The Group offers its customers a broad range of insurance products and financial services through their preferred sales channels. The Group's strategic focus is on sustainable, income-oriented growth in its core markets of Switzerland, Germany, Belgium, Austria and Luxembourg. Bâloise-Holding registered shares form part of the Swiss Market Index (SMI) and are traded on the virt-x under the ticker symbol BALN.

The Group announced profits for the first half of 2001 up 2.5% to SWFr313 million, with premium income up 9% to SWFr4.2bn.

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