Covéa rejects SCOR's claims as "groundless" and "manipulative"

French mutual insurance company Covéa has rejected all the accusations leveled by reinsurance firm SCOR as "groundless" and a "strategy to manipulate the judicial process", and reiterated its support for its chief executive Thierry Derez and his actions.

On January 29 2019 SCOR revealed plans to initiate criminal actions against both Covéa and Derez for an alleged "breach of trust and concealment of breach of trust" in the Criminal Court of Paris. This followed Covéa's announcement earlier that day that it had dropped its plans to acquire a greater share of SCOR, which hit the reinsurer's share price.

Derez has been accused of a serious breach of his legal and fiduciary duties and obligations while he was a director at SCOR (a post he resigned from in November 2018) as well as breaching the company's trade secrets. SCOR also alleged that Covéa directly participated in and benefited from the serious breaches by Derez.

The French mutual’s board said on November 31 2018 that it would “take all action in order to defend its interests” to prevent reputational harm.

Covéa alleges that SCOR’s "unacceptable accusations are undoubtedly part of a strategy to manipulate the judicial process". It added that SCOR’s actions towards Covéa following a "friendly proposal to enter into discussions with respect to the creation of a French-based insurance group with a global footprint, can only raise questions with respect to the defense of the corporate interest of SCOR and of its shareholders’ interests".

Covéa, which already owns about 8.17 percent of SCOR, offered to pay €43 per SCOR share in late August 2018, valuing the company at about €8.2 billion, but the proposal was met with unanimous opposition from SCOR's executive committee. Later in September, SCOR CEO Denis Kessler sent a letter to Derez, asking him to resign from his position as a SCOR board member because of a conflict of interest.

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