After the restructuring, CEO Harald Rosenberger is relying on longer planning horizons under the parent company VIG and is realigning the business. What the new owner values.
Headquarters of Nürnberger Versicherung: The company has been part of the Vienna Insurance Group (VIG) since May. Photo: NÜRNBERGER Insurance
Nürnberger Versicherung wants to focus more on cooperation in the future and concentrate on products such as occupational disability, company health and legal protection insurance.
After the takeover by the Vienna Insurance Group (VIG), the Nuremberg company is planning to compensate the minority shareholders via a squeeze-out.
The bank subsidiary Fürst Fugger Privatbank will play a more important role in addressing wealthy customers and will remain in the group.
VIG supports the Nuremberg company with know-how and investments in IT modernization.
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Frankfurt. After restructuring and takeover by the Vienna Insurance Group (VIG), Nürnberger Versicherung wants to re-emphasize the business. "First we had to make the company fit for the future. Now we want to grow again," said CEO Harald Rosenberger to the Handelsblatt. The insurance group will no longer design all products itself, but will increasingly rely on collaborations.
The pressure to rethink business models is also increasing at other companies: “Many insurers are currently in an optimization phase in which they have to think about how they want to position themselves for the next ten years,” says Linklaters partner Thomas Broichhausen, who advises insurers on mergers and acquisitions. Cost reductions, IT investments, the management of capital investments and the focus on new business played a role.
Some of these points also concern the people of Nuremberg. It got into a crisis because of high costs in the property and casualty business. In 2024, the bottom line was a group loss of 77 million euros, with sales of 4.5 billion euros. Rosenberger started a comprehensive restructuring and took part in the search for a new owner to secure the future.
Nuremberg returned to profitability as early as 2025. It has been part of the VIG Group since May 2026 and remains an independent company. Industry observers are seeing the first restructuring successes. Whether VIG will provide additional impetus will only become apparent in one or two years.
Minority shareholders should be compensated
Rosenberger sees a big advantage in the fact that he no longer has to control the result on a quarterly basis. Nuremberg is still listed on the stock exchange. The remaining minority shareholders are to be compensated via a squeeze-out and the company is taken off the stock market. The extraordinary general meeting will take place on November 12th.
Rosenberger considers the restructuring to be largely completed: “In the past two years, we have divested ourselves of business that no longer fit our risk profile and portfolio.” In addition, 600 jobs were lost, primarily due to natural fluctuation and termination agreements.
In 2024, the Nuremberg company set the goal of achieving a result of 80 to 100 million euros by 2026. The group is now forecasting 80 million euros for this year and is therefore within the corridor, also thanks to low natural catastrophe losses.
“We are now positioned in such a way that we are profitable and achieve our goals even with normal claims burden,” says Rosenberger. He leaves it open whether and when the group result of over 100 million euros set as a medium-term goal for 2023 can be achieved.
The Nuremberg company wants to grow with new products, but no longer wants to be a full-range provider: “We concentrate on what we are good at, such as occupational disability, company health or legal protection insurance,” says Rosenberger. In the medium term, 70 to 80 percent of the products should be produced “in-house”.
“Where we are not part of the top group, we rely on collaborations,” he adds. General agents and car dealership partners can then continue to offer Nürnberger brand products, but the risk is borne by another insurer.
Such collaborations already exist in the areas of risk life, cyber and managerial liability. Rosenberger also thinks this is conceivable for the new state-sponsored retirement savings account.
VIG also opens up opportunities for collaboration within the group. The obvious solution would be to cooperate with Interrisk, the second, much smaller VIG subsidiary in Germany. Rosenberger did not comment on whether there are plans to do this.
Fürst Fugger Privatbank, the banking subsidiary of the Nuremberg Group, which focuses on customers with assets of at least 250,000 euros, will play a more important role. “Many of our agents also know such customers – we see potential in this in sales,” explains Rosenberger. He believes that cooperation between banks and insurers is likely to become even more important in the future when it comes to pension provision and wealth planning.
However, he rejects rumors about a sale of the bank that arose in the course of the takeover by VIG: “There was neither an internal review nor discussions with interested parties.” It remains an integral part of the Nuremberg Group.
Rosenberger relies on support from the parent company for IT modernization. VIG will contribute know-how and a “significant” investment. According to the squeeze-out documents, 240 million euros are necessary because outdated inventory management systems have to be replaced within four to seven years.
VIG has its own expectations. CEO Hartwig Löger has already outlined that the Nuremberg company should bring its expertise in occupational disability insurance to the group. Ultimately, Rosenberger will have to be judged primarily by whether the investment in Germany pays off for the Austrian group.
