DHL unveils deal to bring Brazilian workforce under captive EB programme

DHL has achieved a major expansion within its captive employee benefits programme in Brazil through a “breakthrough” deal that could potentially open up captive EB opportunities for other multinationals with large Brazilian workforces.

The deal struck with Brazilian medical insurer Unimed brings around 25,000 Brazil-based DHL employees into the programme. The arrangement went live on 1 January 2026.

Matthias Helmbold, vice president of global risk benefits, health and wellbeing at DHL, told Captive Review the development was a “huge breakthrough” for the company, which had previously struggled to find a solution capable of covering its large blue-collar workforce across the country.

“The challenge on the EB side in Brazil is that you have no company able to cover, number one a blue-collar workforce, and number two the entire country, and that is something that we’ve been successful in solving,” Helmbold said.

Brazil’s medical insurance market has historically presented challenges for all multinational captive programmes, particularly outside the major cities.

Helmbold said conventional private medical insurers can provide solutions for employees such as middle management in centres including Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo, but do not have the same reach into the countryside.

However, Unimed has a dominant position in providing more standard medical coverage to blue-collar workers and across more remote areas of Brazil.

With existing captive network options unable to provide the coverage DHL wanted, Helmbold approached Unimed directly.

“It was a cold call, basically,” he said. “I called the CEO and said, ‘look, I’m with the DHL captive. Do you want to reinsure to us?’ And he happened to say yes.”

Helmbold subsequently travelled to Brazil for negotiations, while MAXIS Global Benefits Network facilitated the reinsurance from Unimed to DHL’s captive.

The agreement has dramatically increased the scale of DHL’s captive participation in Brazil. Helmbold said that last year only around 1,000 Brazil-based employees were part of the programme.

DHL is still transitioning the remaining Brazilian business into the captive, with Helmbold estimating around 2,000 to 3,000 employees are yet to be included.

“Right now, I already have the vast majority of them in the programme,” Helmbold said. “This is a huge game changer now for us.”

Helmbold said the scale of DHL’s Brazilian workforce made the effort required to establish the bespoke arrangement worthwhile.

“What I did in Brazil is fully justified by the volume,” he said. “It’s 25,000 people. You can imagine we’re talking millions and millions of euros in annual premiums.”

Helmbold said the breakthrough was particularly significant given the historic reluctance of Brazilian insurers to participate in similar reinsurance structures. At a previous employer, he said attempts to find a medical reinsurance partner in Brazil had proved unsuccessful for several years, with local insurers showing little interest in reinsuring the business.

According to Helmbold, this deal represents Unimed’s first captive reinsurance arrangement.

“They’ve never done this before. It’s absolutely new for them,” he said. “They have actually never reinsured anything. It’s the first time they’re reinsuring.”

He subsequently believes the arrangement could also help shift attitudes more widely towards captive employee benefits business in Brazil.

“They’re waking up to the fact that this is interesting business,” he said, noting that multinational captive business can provide insurers with sizeable accounts. “It’s business that’s very sticky typically unless you get it totally wrong. So, it’s not going to market every other year.”

Mattieu Rouot, chief executive of MAXIS GBN commented on the opportunity: “It was great that we could support DHL with this initiative in Brazil. This is an interesting strategic employee benefits market for many multinationals, and we hope to support more clients to add their Brazilian policies to their captive programmes.”

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