ZURVY Zurich Insurance Group Limited (QX)

By Brian Blackstone 

ZURICH-- Zurich Insurance Group said Friday it will create a regionally focused management structure and a post of chief operating officer to streamline its global operations.

"This new organization and strong accountability, empowerment and outcome orientation will be the foundation for our future strategy," Chief Executive Mario Greco said. "The simplified structure will also allow us to become more efficient and support the implementation of our communicated cost reduction programs."

As part of the revamp, Chief Operations and Technology Officer Robert Dickie will step down by mutual agreement "to pursue other opportunities outside Zurich," the company said. Zurich tapped Kristof Terryn as its new chief operating officer.

"We clearly see that this structure is more efficient than the previous one," Mr. Greco said in a conference call with reporters. "It's also about breaking silos."

The improved organizational structure offers greater flexibility and makes absolute sense, analysts at Vontobel Research wrote in a note. "Helped by such action, we expect Zurich to overachieve on its cost savings targets and improve its sales dynamics in a currently challenging market environment," they said.

Shares of Zurich were down 0.4% in early trading Friday, in line with broad-based declines in Swiss equities.

Mr. Greco said there will be job cuts associated with the changes, but it was too soon to say when or where they would occur.

Write to Brian Blackstone at brian.blackstone@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

June 10, 2016 05:20 ET (09:20 GMT)

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