Mutualist core values

On 10 December 1927, 20 hospital directors convened in the large boardroom of Hospices Civils de Lyon to create the first mutual insurer dedicated to hospital personnel: Sham (Société Hospitalière d’Assurances Mutuelles) was born! It officially started operating on 1 January 1928, setting out to provide “insurance covering work-related accidents exclusively for the personnel of secular and religious hospitals”.

Since the very beginning, over the many years spent working alongside health professionals, Sham has continually reinvented itself in order to optimise the support it provides.

Meanwhile, in 1981, Sofaxis came up with the innovative idea of positioning itself in a relatively unexplored part of the insurance world: employers’ liability insurance for public officials.

Sofaxis rapidly developed into a leading player in France and expanded its insurance offering with the addition of consulting and training solutions for local authorities (town halls, local government officials, administrative centres, intercommunalities, local elected officials, administrative departments and regions, departmental fire and rescue services and health facilities).

In 2013, Sham finalised its merger with Sofaxis, announcing its acquisition, and became Groupe Sham. Bringing together the expertise of more than 700 employees, this unique new entity formed a solid, coherent group driven by strong human values and its ambition to become a leading multi-specialist in insurance, risk management and social protection for the health and local authority ecosystems.

In 2014, building on our insurance and risk management model, we began to develop in Europe with the establishment of the Group’s first office in Spain. From then until 2017, we pursued our European expansion, rolling out the brand in Italy and Germany. In 2018, our employees, directors, customers, members and partners celebrated the group’s 90th anniversary.

In 2019, with a view to optimising the support it provides to health professionals and local authorities in their evolving environments, Groupe Sham became Relyens. We continued to grow and our headcount passed the 1,000 mark. Our aim is to be recognised as the leading European mutual insurance and risk management group for professionals delivering general-interest services.

2021 marked a new chapter in the history of our Group. Relyens took the decision to adopt mission-driven company status, incorporating a purpose and social and environmental goals into its entities’Company’s statues. Our purpose and goals engage us at every level of the business and guide us in our day-to-day work. Becoming a mission-driven company takes our transformation to the next level, further increasing our engagement for our stakeholders while building on our community fuelled by commitment and solidarity.

On 2 January 2023, our Sham and Sofaxis brands changed their name to Relyens. This move to a single brand marks a new level of maturity for our Group as part of its ImpACT2025 strategic plan.

This acceleration in our business strategy follows on seamlessly from our longstanding commitment to local authorities, healthcare institutions and health professionals. It is for them that we are adopting a single brand: to facilitate and improve their experience alongside us, and to better reflect who we are and what we do as their risk manager.