018 270 bn 450The new head office of AMB Generali simply could not have a better location: a mere 450 metres away from the famous cathedral ­ it literally is a room with a view of Cologne's legendary landmark. In October the roofing ceremony was held for the new 23,000 m² building. Even if ­ in the truest sense ­ it will always be in the shadow of the mighty cathedral, the mélange of this building steeped in history and the new corporate head- quarters will add a new architectural highlight to the city. AMB Generali's transfer to Cologne planned for early 2009 will also be setting a new course: it will be the largest primary insurer at one of the most traditional locations of the German insurance industry. Money knows no borders, and major asset manag- ers think and work on an international level. The establishment of Generali Investments S.p.A. in 2007 takes this development into account by integrating the asset management activities of the German, Ital- ian and French units. With assets under management amounting to some 270 bn, Generali Investments is one of the leading asset managers in Europe. Flashlights: A successful year for the AMB Generali Group Chap. 1 MANAGEMENT FLASHLIGHTS 2007 13 Terabytes through Europe Quality speaks its own language. AMB Generali Infor- matik Services, the central IT service provider in the AMB Generali Group, will be one of two central loca- tions for the data processing centres of the interna- tional Generali Group in Europe. The trial run for the upcoming relocation of several national computer centres to Germany went off without a hitch. It took only one weekend to transfer the Belgian IT centre from Brussels to Aachen. This German-Belgian transfer involved a data volume of 13 terabytes, an amount equivalent to 22 million volumes of Harry Potter books. 018 September 27 On September 27, 2007 AMB Generali announces its plans for a merger of its two multi-channel insurance companies, Generali and Volksfürsorge. Along with the corporate measures already taken to increase com- petitiveness, the planned merger leads to an increase of profit targets. For the business year 2008, the Group net profit is expected to amount to 450 m. Thereafter AMB Generali anticipates an increase of the Group net profit to 500 m in the business year 2009 and to 550 m in the business year 2010. As early as August 2007, the profit target for 2007 was raised to 400 m.