LONDON:
Aviva has sold its Polish operations to Germany’s Allianz for 2.5 billion euros ($2.94 billion) in cash, completing a programme to sell European and Asian assets begun last year, the British insurer said on Friday.
Allianz trumped rival bids from Italy’s Generali and Dutch insurer NN, sources familiar with the matter told Reuters on Thursday.
Aviva’s boss Amanda Blanc has been selling assets at pace to focus on the life and general insurer’s core businesses of Britain, Canada and Ireland. Aviva also has joint ventures in China and India.
“The sale of our Polish business is an excellent conclusion to the refocusing of our portfolio announced just eight months ago,” Blanc said, adding that the sale of the eight businesses would generate 7.5 billion pounds ($10.31 billion) in cash.
Allianz is also buying Santander’s minority stake in the Aviva Poland business, bringing the total value of the transaction to 2.7 billion euros, Aviva said in a statement.
Santander will retain a 49% holding in the business’s life and general insurance joint ventures, Aviva added.
Allianz, which first entered the Polish market in 1997, ranks as Europe’s biggest insurer and while it has no plans to grow its life insurance operations, it sees the deal as a springboard to further expand across lucrative central and eastern European markets, sources told Reuters.