#$1.1b

India’s Ola raises $1.1B from SoftBank and Tencent and is in talks for another $1B to battle Uber

India’s ridesharing leader Ola announced today it has raised $ 1.1 billion in a round led by Tencent and SoftBank as the company seeks to put more distance between itself and Silicon Valley’s Uber. In addition, the company said it was in talks with other… VentureBeat

Google pays $1.1b for HTC staff and IP

Google has announced a definitive agreement that will see certain HTC employees joining the search engine giant for a cost of $ 1.1 billion in cash. Separately, a statement from the companies has said Google will receive a non-exclusive licence for HTC intellectual property (IP), which is expected to support the Pixel smartphone family. “The agreement is a testament to the decade-long strategic…

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Munich Re Plans to Spend $1.1B by 2020 to Restructure Primary Insurance Unit

Munich Re, the world’s second-biggest reinsurer, plans to spend 1 billion euros ($ 1.1 billion) by 2020 restructuring operations at its loss-making primary insurance unit in Germany.

The plan for ERGO’s German operations includes cutting 1,835 jobs, or about 13 percent of the Dusseldorf-based company’s workforce in Germany, according to a statement on Wednesday.

Most of the money will be used to modernize ERGO’s computer systems. The company’s sales force and administration will also be streamlined, generating total net savings of 280 million euros [$ 312 million] by 2020, ERGO’s Chief Executive Officer Markus Riess said at a press conference in Dusseldorf. The changes will help put ERGO in a position to contribute 500 million euros [$ 557 million] a year to Munich Re’s earnings from 2021 at the latest, he said.

Riess, 49, was hired by Munich Re CEO Nikolaus von Bomhard last year with the task of improving profitability at ERGO. The company, which contributes about one third of Munich Re’s premium income, reported a net loss of 227 million euros [$ 252.9 million] for last year as it wrote down the value of its German life insurance business.

German life insurers are being challenged by low interest rates because their offerings have traditionally featured guaranteed returns that were as high as 4 percent for policies sold in the second half of the 1990s. As a life insurance contract can run for 30 years or more, it’s difficult to meet these obligations with German 10-year government bonds paying less than 0.2 percent. The average interest guarantee of German life insurers was 2.59 percent last year, according to Cologne-based insurance ratings firm Assekurata.

ERGO will spend 432 million euros [$ 481.3 million] on the digitalization of its operations, while a further 379 million euros [$ 422.3 million] will be invested “to make operations leaner and more efficient” with a focus on the sales force, Riess said. “Our sales costs are too high.”

ERGO will report a “slightly negative result” this year and is expected to return to a clearly positive result in 2017, Munich Re said in a separate statement. The reinsurer confirmed its full-year profit target of 2.3 billion euros [$ 2.6 billion], which it revised last month and which includes a 300 million euro [$ 334.2 million] restructuring charge at ERGO.

Related:

Munich Re’s Q1 Net Income Drops to $ 489.9M; Annual Profit Target Revised

Munich Re Issues First Quarter Profit Warning on Lower Equity Investments

Xiaomi, suddenly the world's most valuable startup, raises $1.1B

Sony Ericsson Headphones

Xiaomi, suddenly the world's most valuable startup, raises .1B sony ericsson headphones Despite significant presence in Asia — China in particular — it faces issues expanding to developed markets because of concerns over intellectual property. Ericsson has sued Xiaomi for infringing on patents earlier this month, prompting a ban on …

Professional LG-290 A+ Bluetooth…

US company to invest over $1.1b in Iranian waste-to-energy project

c_330_235_16777215_0___images_stories_edim_01_mg1(2).jpg TEHRAN – The U.S. company World Eco Energy plans to invest $1.175 billion in a project in Iran's southwestern province of Chaharmahal-Bakhtiari to generate electricity from solid waste.