=Germany: AXA buys out AXA Konzern minority interests.
=Twelfth Shareplan program results in employee ownership of 5.62% of AXA's equity capital.
=AXA Investment Managers acquires the Framlington group.
=AXA Financial sells its subsidiary Advest Group, Inc. To Merrill Lynch.
=AXA creates the region "Northern Europe".
=Portugal: AXA acquires Seguro Directo.
=Henri de Castries launches Ambition 2012.The Group sets an ambitious objective: become the preferred company in its industry by 2012.
=The AXA brand turns 20
=AXA Tech begins operations in India.
=AXA disposes of its insurance business in Uruguay.
=AXA gains strength in the Middle East, creating AXA Gulf.
=AXA creates the region "Northern Europe" to accelerate organic growth and improve the efficiency of its operations in the region. This region includes AXA subsidiaries operating in Belgium, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Germany and Switzerland.
2004
=At the Group's Annual General Meeting, shareholders voted to approve a first resolution amending AXA's bylaws to allow for an employee shareholder representative to be elected to the Supervisory Board.
=AXA gains strength in the US market by acquiring MONY (Mutual of New York), now a wholly owned subsidiary of AXA Financial.
=The AXA Financial manufacturing company - known as The Equitable Life Assurance Society of the United States - officially changes its name to AXA Equitable Life Insurance Company.
=At the close of the eleventh Shareplan employee stock ownership program, more than half of AXA's employees are AXA shareholders, and together own 5.14% of total share capital.
=AXA creates "the Mediterranean" region includes AXA subsidiaries operating in Spain, Portugal, Italy, Turkey, Morocco, Lebanon, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia.
=AXA gains strength in Asia:
- The Philippines and Thailand: via a joint venture with banking partners;
- Indonesia: via a joint venture with Bank Mandiri, Indonesia's largest bank, AXA rises to third place in this market;
- China: new office opens in Guangzhou.
2003
=AXA announces its bid to acquire US life insurer MONY (Mutual of New York). The deal is subject to the approval of MONY shareholders on May 18, 2004.
=AXA sells its insurance businesses in Brazil and Argentina, but maintains an operating presence in the assistance market through AXA Assistance.
2002
=AXA unveils a blueprint for achieving operational excellence through customer service.
=AXA acquires Banque Directe, a subsidiary of BNP-Paribas, to enhance its savings inflow and management capability in France.
=AXA sells its health insurance business in Australia to refocus on its core life insurance and financial advisory businesses.
=AXA sells its equity interests in insurance companies based in Chile.
2001
=AXA sells Banque Worms to Deutsche Bank.
=AXA shareholders approve a four-for-one stock split.
=AXA's net exposure to the terrorist attacks in the United States reaches 650 million euros.
2000
=Henri de Castries is appointed Chairman of the AXA Management Board, succeeding Claude Bébéar, who is appointed Chairman of the Supervisory Board.
=AXA buys back outstanding minority interests in AXA Financial (United States) and Sun Life & Provincial Holdings (United Kingdom).
=Alliance Capital Management, a subsidiary of AXA Financial, acquires value asset manager Sanford Bernstein.
1999
=AXA acquires UK insurer Guardian Royal Exchange and Nippon Dantai, Japan's thirteenth largest domestic life insurer.
=AXA subsidiaries in Asia, Australia, New Zealand and the United States adopt the AXA name.
=AXA buys back outstanding minority interests in AXA China Region, its life insurance subsidiary in Hong Kong.
1997
=AXA Asset Management Europe changes its name to AXA Investment Managers.
1996
=AXA stock is admitted for trading on the New York Stock Exchange.
=AXA merges with UAP, France's number one insurer.
1995
=AXA acquires a controlling interest in National Mutual, Australia's second largest life insurer.
=AXA Life Japan begins operations.
1994
=AXA acquires Boréal Assurances in Canada and Victoire Belgium in Belgium.
=AXA launches its first worldwide institutional advertising campaign.
=Establishment of AXA Asset Management Europe, AXA's asset management arm in Europe.
1991
=AXA acquires a majority interest in The Equitable, an insurance company founded in 1859.
1989
=AXA acquires a controlling interest in Compagnie du Midi, becoming the second largest player in the French insurance market behind UAP.
1988
=AXA and Compagnie du Midi, the holding company of Assurances Générales de Paris, merge their insurance businesses.
1986
=Following an unprecedented stock market battle, AXA acquires control over Providence and Secours.
=The AXA Group holds its first corporate seminar in the Sahara Desert.
1985
=The new group chooses an international name: AXA.
1982
=Mutuelles Unies takes over Drouot. Claude Bébéar is appointed Chairman and CEO of the new company, which becomes France's largest non-state owned insurer.
1978
=Ancienne Mutuelle changes its name to Mutuelles Unies and acquires Compagnie Parisienne de Garantie, renamed Mutuelle Parisienne de Garantie.
1977
=Ancienne Mutuelle Réassurance is founded.
1975
=Claude Bébéar is appointed CEO of Ancienne Mutuelle.
1968
=Canadian insurer Provinces-Unies, whose life business was developed by Claude Bébéar, becomes a member of the Ancienne Mutuelle group.
1958
=Claude Bébéar joins Ancienne Mutuelle, an insurance company based in the vicinity of Rouen, France, as a senior manager.
One Business: Financial Protection
This involves offering customers- individuals, as well as small, mid-size and large businesses - a wide range of product and services that meet their insurance, protection, savings, retirement and financial planning needs throughout their lives.
Financial Protection: Is the vision of AXA and it is how it should be done. Everyday, they offer customers care, support and advice to help them be life confident.
An Ambitious Company
AXA as a group is working together towards their shared ambition of becoming the preferred company in the industry by 2012 by differentiating themselves through the quality of products and the quality of their service and performance.
Aware and proud of their industry's contribution to the economic and social development of the community, they seek to do business responsibly by living up to consistent values and stakeholder commitments throughout the world.
They are working toward the shared ambition of attaining leadership in their core Financial Protection business, through the quality of their products and services as well as through superior performance.
They value. . .
* Team spirit,
* Integrity,
* Innovation,
* Pragmatism,
* Professionalism.
Their values are the foundation of AXA's ambition. They serve as a guide, inspiring the actions and decisions of AXA employees. These values reflect the way of doing and thinking, for the benefit of their clients, shareholders, employees, business partners and the community.
. . .To do business responsibly and build a relationship of trust with our partners.
Their Commitments
AXA aspired to do business responsibly, and to build trust-based relationships with its stakeholders:
Our Clients: Consistently deliver efficient local service and adapted solutions, while adhering to the highest standard of professional conduct.
Our Shareholders: Create lasting value by achieving operating performance that ranks among the best in the industry, and strive to furnish accurate financial information.
Our Employees: Ensure professional fulfillment by offering a supportive and respectful workplace where people are empowered and the continuous development of competencies is encouraged.
Our Suppliers: Maintain excellent supplier relationships by adhering to a set of clearly defined procurement guidelines and promoting ongoing dialogue.
The Community: Act as a responsible corporate citizen by sharing our professional expertise with the community, innovating in the area of employment and sponsoring philanthropic initiatives.
The Environment: Contribute to environmental preservation efforts by making available our environmental risk management capability and promoting environmentally sound practices in the workplace.
The AXA Brand
Today, 52 million clients in the world trust AXA and the AXA name. Since 1998, the AXA Group has been doing business under a single brand with global reach: AXA.
The AXA logo was created in 1985. The name and logo were designed to reflect the Group's image: professional, united, vibrant and ambitious.
In 2003, to provide a clearer vision of the transformation of its core business from traditional insurance to the broader concept of Financial Protection, the AXA Group added the words Financial Protection as a baseline to its logo and its slogan- Be Life Confident.
The Strategy
AXA's strategy is to combine organic and external growth to meet the challenge of operational excellence in all of the following areas:
* Distribution * Quality of service * Productivity * Product innovation * Core business expertise (underwriting, claims management, pricing, investment performance)
All AXA employees are champions of operational excellence. They are supported in this aim by the AXA Way continuous process improvement program.
Figure 1: AXA FRAMEWORK
PLAN OF IMPLEMENTATION FOR DIFFERENTIATION
Distribution Initiatives: A pragmatic approach to propriety and non propriety strategies
Product Innovation: Momentum is building up
Quality of Service: Improve on services measured.
Regional Initiatives
Group Initiatives
Leveraging the resources of the AXA Group, and in accordance with AXA's values and commitments, more than 120,000 people are working daily to execute this strategy.
THE GOAL
It took them 20 years to build a unique company.
They have a clearly defined business model that identifies customer needs according to their life stages and at different levels.
Figure 1: THE BUSINESS MODEL
They also recognized the risks involved in their business and crafted a strategy to minimize them as they shifted their approach from a social and legal point of view to an economic and more sustainable approach.
Figure 2: RECOGNITION OF RISKS
Growth
Figure 3: GROWTH FORMULA
Solution
The Right Vision and Right Approach to People
The Right Operational Model
The Right Specific Actions
Initial Results
AXA has started to deliver on Ambition 2012 top line growth objectives as well as bottom line targets.
GROWTH OBJECTIVES
BOTTOM LINE TARGETS
AXA Today
The combined group has 189,000 employees and 122 billions dollars of revenues in 2004. If AXA were a single company it would rank as the 15th largest company in the world (based on revenues) on the 2006 Fortune Global 500 list.
All AXA employees are champions of operational excellence, supported in particular by the AXA WAY continuous process improvement program.
The 110,000 men and women who make up AXA are leveraging their membership in the Group to execute this strategy, which is based on our values and commitments.
CONCLUSION
AXA, for over 20 years of service to the global market has indeed proved to be a very successful company having been included in the top Fortune 500 list of companies in 2006. 2006, was a very strong year for AXA as it has managed to increase by 30% through increased diversification and stronger local franchises in their key markets. This is way ahead of their ambitious 2012 targets. The company is expecting more from 2007 specially with the most recent acquisition, Winterthur.
Moreover, AXA’s business model entails fortifying, consolidating and developing organic growth by retaining existing clients and acquiring new ones to ensure that the Group is able to seize genuine opportunities for external growth. Also, AXA’s growth can be attributed to its development efforts which are focused on the most profitable segments and seeks to enhance its positioning in developed or high-growth markets
Lastly, the AXA Group of Companies’ ambition lies at the crossroads between two (2) key requirements. First, the performance must be made possible through operational excellence, and secondly, the excellence of the Group’s behavior in relation to all of its stakeholders. The excellence of behavior is therefore founded on the stringent and strict compliance with the procedures and commitments as summarized in their Group Compliance Guide, reflecting AXA’s values.
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