The EC Commission approves the new P&C company

The EC Commission approves the new P&C insurance company (Skandia, Storebrand, Pohjola) The EC Commission has now decided to approve the new Nordic property & casualty insurance (P&C) company from a competition standpoint. Skandia and Storebrand first announced the formation of a new Nordic P&C company in February through the merger of Skandia's and Storebrand's P&C operations. In June, Pohjola affiliated itself with the new company through its P&C operations. The question of approving the new company from a competition standpoint thereby came under the jurisdiction of the EC Commission. As announced previously, Skandia's Norwegian P&C operations in Vesta will be divested to an unrelated third party. This condition is also stipulated in the EC Commission's decision. Skandia's president and CEO, Lars-Eric Petersson, comments: "It is very pleasing that we have gained competition approval so quickly for the new P&C company. We can now proceed further with the implementation work for the new company." For further information, please contact: Jan-Mikael Bexhed, General Counsel, tel. +46-8-788 3722, +46-70-583 3722 Birgitta Hammarström, Press Officer, tel. +46-8-788 2755 ------------------------------------------------------------ Please visit http://www.bit.se for further information The following files are available for download: http://www.bit.se/bitonline/1999/08/18/19990818BIT00050/bit0001.doc http://www.bit.se/bitonline/1999/08/18/19990818BIT00050/bit0002.pdf