Gjensidige Forsikring: Protection and Reliability

The WHITEFRIARS team met with the management of Gjensidige Forsikring (Mutual Insurance) on our recent Oslo trip, which traces its history back to 1816. Gjensidige is a leading Nordic non-life insurance business that operates in Norway, Sweden and Denmark. In addition, it offers pensions and savings plans in Norway. In a world where the mutual model is increasingly disappearing, Gjensidige proudly maintains this tradition despite listing on the Oslo stock exchange in 2010. The Gjensidige Foundation (Gjensidigestiftelsen), the largest in Norway, owns 62% of the business and hands an annual dividend to the Foundation in line with its dividend policy. It paid a dividend of NOK 2.8bn (£215mn) in 2025 and since listing customers have received a total dividend of NOK 33bn (£2.54bn).[1]

Nordic Leadership

The completion of the sale of its Baltics operations in early 2026 has left Gjensidige focused on building on its leadership positions in Norway, Sweden and Denmark – serving 2 million customers. Norway is the largest segment in terms of revenues, where Gjensidige serves private customers and small & medium businesses, both offering stable demand. The position in Norway (general insurance) has been strengthened with the purchase of Buysure AS in 2025, which brings access to 20% of housing sales in Norway. Gjensidige offers defined contribution occupational pension schemes for businesses and individual pension savings & disability pensions in Norway. This part of the business serves 335,000 customers and assets under management have doubled to NOK 105 billion since the end of 2022.[2] The model in Sweden is broker and partnership led, where the market is highly fragmented with M&A being the likely route to build market share. Gjensidige acquired shares in Varsamma AB in 2025, growing its private customer segment. In Denmark, the market remains broker led, with Gjensidige is focused on the commercial sector.

Innovation – Digital Roadmap

The Nordic insurance market is amongst the most-developed, profitable and digitalised in Europe, with a general insurance market worth Nok 400 billion in premium volume. Gjensidige handles over 900,000 claims annually and has moved early in terms of innovation to improve the customer’s digital experience, increasing operational excellence. In Denmark, the company has launched a new tool for registering and mapping damage to motor vehicles. Image recognition technology has been developed in Norway to assess whether car damage can be repaired or a part needs to be replaced with a new one, helping to lower the consumption of materials, leading to a reduced climate footprint and lower costs. Management have developed a digital roadmap encompassing sales solutions, support tools, and claims reporting to contribute to good customer experience - 80% of losses are now reported digitally.

Sustainability

Owned 62% by a charitable foundation, Gjensidige presents interesting ESG credentials for the responsible and sustainable investor, based on its majority mutual ownership structure, and its approach in assessing climate risk in claims management. Of the companies we met in Oslo, Gjensidige was the only one without any State ownership, nevertheless it shares characteristics with Benefact Group (Ecclesiastical Insurance) in the UK, which is also owned by a charitable trust. The Foundation (Gjensidigestiftelsen) exists, like Benefact Trust, to make grants that support social causes. These focus on safety, children, education, community projects, emergency relief and culture. Over the past 15 years, the Foundation has received over NOK25bn in dividends via its shareholding in Gjensidige, distributing NOK496m to 1,022 projects in 2024. 

Gjensidige as a general insurance company is at the heart of understanding, via targets and analytics, how climate change is affecting its claims profile. The company has set ambitious targets to reduce claims handling emissions by 55% by 2030 (versus a 2019 baseline), and a 90% reduction in Scope I & II emissions by the same date; offsets may be used in respect of the residue to achieve net zero. The company has also set a net zero target in the investment portfolio by 2050, and has had this validated as a science-based target. Commendably, all of the company's targets are trending down versus the 2019 base line. 

The company has an in-house Ethics Committee with oversight of all things sustainable and they 'sense check' against the policies and principles of the Oljefondet (the Norges Bank managed 'oil fund'). One area we found particularly interesting is the collaboration with the Norwegian Computing Centre, conducting analysis of the long-term consequences and risks arising from climate change, combining loss data with climate projections to provide a more robust forward-looking understanding of climate risks. In turn the company stresses this will proactively impact product design and create a more rigorous basis for heightened climate adaptation in under-writing.

Financials – Conservative and Quality

Gjensidige’s financials screen quality, more so since the exit from the Baltics and the renewed focus on the Nordics. Key highlights to FY 25 include a 33% increase in general insurance revenue since 2022, a stable combined ratio (83.4% in 25), a near doubling of ROE (27.3%), an 88% increase in profits after tax over the same period, and a solvency ratio of 188%. The company has a dividend payout ratio of at least 80% of profits after tax and has maintained a strong track record. Shareholders have been rewarded with special dividends in the last two financial years and a total of six times since listing in 2010. The shares currently offer an attractive yield in excess of 5%, which is well covered by earnings.

Outlook

The outlook for Gjensidige remains positive with a 9% growth in insurance revenue in Q2 26, 33.3% ROE and a solvency ratio of 189% over the same period. The company is already the number 1 player in Norway and is likely to pursue M&A to build on the positions in Denmark and Sweden. The focus on the customer remains a key driver for future growth, with a high level of brand loyalty – customer retention is 90%. Management have developed a strong partnership model, including with Tesla, the best-selling brand in Norway, where 1 in 5 sales are Tesla. Gjensidige is an example of a quality business that is customer centric led by conservative management and supported by a mutual model, resulting in compounding dividends and robust investment returns.

[1] FX conversion rate £1: NOK 13 (15.07.26)

[2] Annual report 2025