ZURICH (Reuters) - Zurich Insurance Group <ZURN.S> wants to do only targeted mergers and acquisitions and sees no need for sweeping consolidation in Europe, Chief Executive Mario Greco said.
His remarks to Bloomberg TV come amid persistent speculation that Zurich and German peer Allianz <ALVG.DE> could be interested in a tie-up.
"Mergers and M&A activity is not really a priority for us. We are doing some targeted, focused M&A transactions and we will continue doing that but all we do is in-country transactions where we can strengthen our strengths in each given country as we did in Australia, as we did in Argentina, as we did in the U.S. a year ago. We will stick to that and we will maintain our discipline and our focus on that," he said.
Asked whether the European insurance sector needed consolidation, he said: "I don't think so because we are in the middle of a fundamental industry transformation where consolidation doesn't solve the issues, doesn't make it easier for any of us to confront the issues of the transformation."
(Reporting by Michael Shields; Editing by Alexandra Hudson)
