The British multinational insurance and the largest general insurer Aviva has agreed to sell its French business unit for $3.9 billion (3.2 billion euros).
The French Business unit was sold to mutual insurer Aema Groupe
which was recently created by the merger of two companies Macif and Aesio.
This deal is considered to be the largest deal in Chief Executive Officer Amanda Blanc’s Push to streamline the U.K. insurer.
Amanda Blanc The Chief Executive Officer of Aviva said:
“The sale of Aviva France is a very significant milestone in the delivery of our strategy,”
“The transaction will increase Aviva’s financial strength, remove significant volatility and bring real focus to the group.”
Amanda Blanc took the helm last year in July during the time share price hadn’t improved over the past five years.
She had mentioned that the firm’s primary focus will be on its strongest business in the U.K., Canada and Ireland.
Because of these measures there was a load of deals
which followed including the sale of Aviva’s majority stake for about $2 billion in its Singapore business.
After this Aviva’s shares increased as much as 2.1% in trading in London.
The complete insurance industry had been under pressure for years even before the pandemic with rising regulation costs and low bond yields.
And after this deals nearly worth $100 billion was announced across the industry last year.
Many insurers including Aviva started to build its strength in markets where they were firmly established already.
The firm’s French operation resulted in about 20% of company’s revenue in 2019.
Despite all this it still ranks 11th in the French life insurance market. Which is already dominated by mutuals and banks
And in general insurance it is in 12th position according to the company’s 2019 annual report.
Aviva is also in negotiation with a Paris based CNP Assurances to sell its Italian life insurance business.
