It is physically weakened that Denis Kessler had participated, on May 25, in the annual general meeting (GA) of Scor. But the non-executive chairman of the world’s fifth largest reinsurer had led the debates from start to finish, including to answer questions about his announced succession, reaffirming that the 2024 GA would be chaired by his successor, whose research is entrusted to the firm. recruiter Egon Zehnder.
Pending the arrival of the new chairman, it is Augustin de Romanet, vice-chairman of the board of directors, who assumes the interim chairmanship, in accordance with the group’s internal regulations.
Before the AGM meeting, Denis Kessler had devoted part of the last months of his presidency to putting the group’s accounts in order and completing his succession: at the beginning of May, Scor announced that it had returned to profits in the first quarter (311 million euros in profits), after a 2022 financial year in deficit of 301 million, a consequence of the multiplication of natural disasters.
Climate commitments
The May GA also served as a baptism of fire for the new general manager, Thierry Léger, a Franco-Swiss who had taken office less than a month before, but whose appointment had been announced at the end of January, in same time as the surprise departure of Laurent Rousseau.
The new managing director has not had time, in the meantime, to finalize a new strategic plan – he must present it on September 7 –, but he has taken on the first significant decisions before the shareholders.
It has thus set new climate commitments, with the prohibition to insure or reinsure new gas and thermal coal projects, but also oil in the Arctic and tar sands. And announced the exit of Scor from the global alliance of insurers for the climate transition Net-Zero Insurance Alliance, victim of serial defections after being targeted by twenty American states.