History

 

Cattolica Assicurazioni Spa, founded in Verona in 1896, boasts a longevity that has few equals in the Italian insurance scene.

Its historical and entrepreneurial path shows evidence of constant development, between pushing for innovation and providing fair social attention. It is a balance that was already present in the team of founders who gathered on 27 February 1896 in Verona to sign the incorporating document of the Società Cattolica di Assicurazione cooperative: 34 members and 36 shareholders who laid the foundations of the project. In the wake of the Rerum Novarum encyclical, published a mere five years prior, Cattolica’s Statute focused its main attention on social issues and the modern Social Doctrine of the Church.

Cattolica was founded as a cooperative, with a formula that considered the distinction between members and shareholders.

The company’s original corporate goal was to protect farmers from damages caused by hail and fires; the choice of the symbol - the angel with the Latin motto “vitam auget securitas” - fully expresses this vocation.

The growth of Cattolica sped up greatly in 1900, when the business extended to offering life insurance policies.

During the phases of economic recovery and reconstruction that followed both World Wars, the company developed a wider range of products to meet the new needs of Italian society and grew its market share, spurring the company on along its economic, social and solidarity trajectory.

During the 1990s, it was one of the first Italian companies to adopt a multichannel sales strategy, pairing the traditional network of agencies with the distribution channel of bancassurance, which makes use of the commercial network of its partner banks.

2000 was an important year for Cattolica: it decided to add its listing on the Milan Stock Exchange, marking a turning point from the past. This was a choice that marked a new phase in the life of the company and showed its desire to compete with the market.

In 2003, Tua Assicurazioni, a Group company dedicated to innovation, was founded with a range of products geared to meet the needs of families, professionals and SMEs.

As a direct reflection of the Group’s social responsibility, in 2006 the Fondazione Cattolica Assicurazioni was founded in response to local needs and the social sensitivity of communities.

In 2012 the Ca' Tron agricultural estate was acquired as the first step towards the creation of the Cattolica Assicurazioni Estates, which currently extend over an area of approximately 2 thousand hectares in the Venice Lagoon. The estates are an ecosystem for experimentation that uses precision technology methods and tools to provide solutions for assessment of the possible impact of various risks in agriculture.

2014 saw the acquisition of Fata Assicurazioni, a leading agricultural company which was merged into the Cattolica Group as of 2017.

In the meantime, corporate governance also evolved: the following year, 2018, saw the adoption of a One-Tier Governance Model to enhance the functioning of the Board of Directors, streamlining and increasing the efficiency of the company’s organisational and functional management in line with international best practice.

In the summer of 2020, with a view to preserving the centrality of the company’s territory, clients and employees, and to offer an important opportunity to create value for all stakeholders, Cattolica entered into a strategic partnership with Assicurazioni Generali, which become a significant shareholder with a 24.4% stake.

On 1 April 2021, following a vote at the Shareholders' Meeting of 30 July 2020, Cattolica became a public limited company.

Following the positive outcome of the voluntary takeover bid launched by Generali, on 5 November 2021 the Generali Group became the controlling shareholder of Cattolica Assicurazioni with 84.475% of the share capital.