Middle East

Axa Gulf restructures sales division

Axa Gulf, the GCC based insurance joint venture between the Axa group of France and the Yusuf Bin Ahmed Kanoo trading conglomerate, is reorganising its sales division. Axa Gulf, which until a year ago was a joint venture between Aviva of the UK (which sold its stake to Axa) and the Kanoo group is the biggest international insurance group in the Middle East. The reorganisation of Axa Gulf’s sales division was prompted by the departure of chief operations officer Ian Reid from Axa Gulf to exclusively look after the Kanoo group’s insurance interests in the region. The company has appointed new area managers for Saudi Arabia and Bahrain and for the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Oman, as well as a new commercial manager for Axa Gulf’s employee benefits business in the UAE. However, some things will remain the same. Didier Boussemart, chief executive of Axa Gulf, said that while Paul Adamson (currently country manager for Saudi Arabia) has been promoted to area manager for Saudi Arabia and Bahrain, his main task will continue to be managing Axa Gulf’s relationship with the Saudi Monetary Authority in order to obtain an operating licence for Axa Cooperative in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.