Lionel Laurent, Columnist

Swiss Re Doesn't Get the Hype About SoftBank

Bridging the world of reinsurance and technology is harder than it looks.

April 4, 2018 at 11:39 AM UTC

Corrected

April 4, 2018 at 3:03 PM UTC

Lionel Laurent is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist writing about the future of money and the future of Europe. Previously, he was a reporter for Reuters and Forbes.

Exhibition At SoftBank World 2017 — Photographer: Kiyoshi Ota/Bloomberg

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Who wouldn't want the attention of a billionaire like Masayoshi Son? The SoftBank founder is Japan's third-richest man, with interests from ride-hailing app Uber to shared-office firm WeWork. So when he was reported to be eyeing a 25 percent stake in Swiss Re AG, investors leapt at the idea of a tech tie-up and the possibility of fresh funds at a difficult time for the re-insurance industry.

The problem is that Swiss Re's management is finding the attention more trouble than it's worth. CEO Christian Mumenthaler, who back in February seemed to like the idea of an "anchor" shareholder, poured cold water on the SoftBank hype on Wednesday.