Norwich and CGU may merge offices

The merger of Norwich Union’s and CGU’s head offices in Melbourne has not been ruled out as part of the £20 billion global merger announced in London last week.

The merger of Norwich Union’s and CGU’s head offices in Melbourne has not been ruled out as part of the £20 billion global merger announced in London last week.

CGU Australia chief executive Ian Balfe says there has been no decision as to how the administrative staff of the two companies will be merged.

“It makes sense to have just one accounting department, one HR department and so on, so we will probably merge the two in the future,” he told Money Management.

“At present we are concentrating on merging the two biggest insurers in New Zealand.”

In November 1998, the Australian arm of Commercial Union merged with NZI Insurance, again as part of a global merger.

Balfe says he hasn’t met the Norwich Union management team in Australia yet, but says his company now has the expertise in merging two large operations.

In the UK, Norwich Union is to lose a considerable number of its head office staff based in Norwich. A total of 4000 jobs are to go, out of an UK workforce of 70,000 for the combined staffs. Some jobs will also go at CGU’s Perth operation in Scotland.

The merged group is looking to save up to £200 million a year in administration costs from the merger.

In Australia, Norwich Union will be without a chief executive shortly when James MacKenzie moves to ANZ Funds Management. Balfe says no decision has been made as to who will be the chief executive officer of the merged operation in Australia.