The Danish Competition Council approves Alm. Brand’s acquisition of Codan Forsikring

Both Alm. Brand and Codan provide products and services within the field of property and casualty insurance (non-life insurance) for both private and business consumers. As a result of the merger, Alm. Brand will become the second largest provider of non-life insurance for business consumers in Denmark and the third largest on the market for private customers.

The Danish Competition and Consumer Authority has completed extensive investigations among business consumers, competing insurance companies and insurance brokers. The investigations show among other things that Alm. Brand are focused on small to medium-sized businesses including agricultural businesses, while Codan primarily focuses on bigger businesses including international shipping companies and companies in the field of renewable energy (so-called “Tech Lines”). The Danish Competition and Consumer Authority has considered, but not concluded, whether the market of non-life insurance to business customers can be further segmented into segments based on industry, types of risk, size of the business, and whether the business use an insurance broker or not.

Alm. Brand will after the acquisition have a market share of 20-30 percent of the market for non-life insurance to business consumers in Denmark.

The Danish Competition and Consumer Authority found that that the parties ensure a certain level of competition towards each other in the business segment. However, it was assessed that business consumers generally are more informed and conscious when it comes to prices, and they are therefore more price sensitive. In addition, insurance brokers are commonly used among business consumers, which also ensures that the market is more dynamic.

The Danish Competition and Consumer Authority has considered whether there could be reason for concerns in different sub-segments on the market for insurances to business consumers, however these consideration did not give rise to any concerns about the competition being significantly harmed on these sub-segments.

After the acquisition Alm. Brand will have a market share of 10-20 percent of the market for non-life insurance to private consumers in Denmark.

The Danish Competition and Consumer Authority’s preliminary investigations did not give rise to any concerns regarding the competition on this market. The investigations showed that the parties could not be said to be close competitors, and also that neither of the parties can be said to have played an important role for competition before the merger.

Also, the Danish Competition and Consumer Authority assessed that it would be difficult to establish coordinated effects on the market both before and after the merger, as the transparency regarding the consumers is limited.

Overall, the Danish Competition Council considered that the merger will not lead to a significant impediment to effective competition.