La Capitale (company)


La Capitale is a Canadian business that provides insurance products and financial services to more than 900 institutions and 600,000 members of staff in Quebec, Canada. The company is headquartered in Quebec City and is mainly active in Quebec. However, since 2008, La Capitale has extended its services into Ontario. La Capitale General Insurance ranks among the largest insurers in Quebec.

History

La Capitale has it origins in a mutual fund that was formed in 1940 by state employees from Parliament Hill in Quebec who wanted to establish a more secure way to pay for their funeral expenses. The official name for this group was la Mutuelle des employés civils. Still operating under la Mutuelle des employés civils name, in 1947, the organization issued its first life insurance policies and opened its first office in Montreal, Quebec.
Initially, la Mutuelle des employés civils only offered insurance products for state employees. However, in 1954, the Quebec Liquor Commission became the first business to hold a group insurance contract with the organization.
In 1976, the first subsidiary of la Mutuelle des employés civils, La Capitale General Insurance, was formed. The creation of La Capitale General Insurance also signified the organization's move from only offering insurance products to state employees to offering their products to everyone.

Formation

Beginning with La Capitale General Insurance, the mutual company continued to form new subsidiaries, including La Capitale MFQ Real Estate Management in 1981, which is responsible for acquisitions and property management, La Capitale Insurance and Financial Services in 1989, and La Capitale Civil Service Mutual and La Capitale Civil Service Insurer in 1991, among others. In 1989, La Capitale Financial Group Inc. was formed to serve as a holding company overseeing all of La Capitale's various subsidiaries. Although a holding company, La Capitale Financial Group Inc. was still controlled by la Mutuelle des employés civils.
In 2000, La Capitale subsidiaries underwent a brand change and officially adopted the La Capitale banner.

Expansion of headquarters

From 1962 to 2013, La Capitale's head office was located in Parliament Hill in Quebec City, at the corner of Saint-Amable and De La Chevrotière. In 2013, the construction of La Capitale's new headquarters building, also located in Parliament Hill in Quebec City, was completed. The inauguration of La Capitale's new headquarters was attended by Premier Pauline Marois, the Minister of Finance and Economy, Nicolas Marceau, and Quebec City's mayor, Régis Labeaume. The La Capitale building would serve as the new head offices for La Capitale and all of its subsidiaries. As of 2013, La Capitale employs approximately 3,000 staff members at this head office in Quebec.

Expansion into Ontario

La Capitale and its various subsidiaries continued to experience growth in the early 2000s, with a significant acquisition completed in 2004, when La Capitale purchased L'Unique General Insurance for $48 million. By 2007, La Capitale had become the fourth largest property and casualty insurer in Quebec
In 2008, La Capitale saw that it was facing a limited and in many ways saturated insurance market in Quebec. In 2009, intent on finding new revenue streams, the company initiated a project to enter the Ontario market for the first time. The company would do business in Ontario under its same La Capitale General Insurance brand name and would remain headquartered in Quebec City.
The 2009 growth project was executed in two fronts. The first part would be to develop La Capitale's business in property and casualty insurance in Ontario. The second part would be to strengthen the presence of L'Unique General Insurance in Quebec.
As part of La Capitale's move into Ontario, in 2008, La Capitale General Insurance acquired York Fire & Casualty Insurance Co., an insurance company providing automobile and property insurance in Ontario and Alberta. York Fire & Casualty was purchased from Kingsway Financial Services Inc.
Prior to this acquisition, in 2006, La Capitale Civil Service Insurer Inc. acquired Penncorp Life Insurance Co., a specialty accident and disability insurance firm located in Mississauga, Ontario. In 2005, La Capitale Financial Group acquired the AGA Financial Group, a company active outside of Quebec.
As of 2016, La Capitale has more than doubled its business done outside of Quebec.

Company structure

La Capitale is organized into different divisions, each responsible for a separate line of business.