Athora Holding Ltd. to Acquire Generali Belgium S.A.

PEMBROKE, Bermuda – Athora Holding Ltd. (together with its subsidiaries, “Athora”) announced today that it will acquire Generali Belgium S.A. (“Generali Belgium”), the Belgium-based subsidiary of international insurance group Assicurazioni Generali S.p.A.  Cash consideration for the transaction will be approximately €540 million.

Generali Belgium is today the 11th largest insurer in Belgium providing a broad set of insurance solutions to retail and corporate clients through a network of over 1,000 independent brokers.  The company serves the Belgian market with a comprehensive product set including single and recurring premium savings; pension and unit-linked life products; motor, homeowners and renters non-life coverage. Generali Belgium has approximately 420,000 customers served by 430 team members, had total gross written premiums of over €640 million in 2017, and total assets of €5.3 billion. The transaction is expected to close in the second half of 2018, subject to regulatory approvals.

Michele Bareggi, Group Managing Partner at Athora stated: “Since our successful capital raise in April 2017, we have been rapidly expanding our presence in Europe.  In addition to launching our business with the acquisitions of Delta Lloyd Lebensversicherung in 2015 and Aegon Ireland earlier this month, this transaction is another major step toward our goal of becoming the premier European insurance consolidator and life reinsurance partner.  Belgium is a target market for Athora, where we plan to deploy substantial capital over the next few years, and Generali Belgium is a perfect fit for our strategy and growth plans in the country.”

In April 2017, Athora received binding subscriptions through a private placement of common equity securities.  The offering involved subscriptions representing approximately €2.2 billion from global institutional investors and is intended to support its existing business lines and capital and reinsurance transactions in the European insurance market.  

With the acquisition of Generali Belgium, its strong management team, and solid market positioning, Athora will acquire a platform for consolidation in Belgium whilst focusing on the development of the company’s retail life and non-life business lines, and the aggregation of traditional life books.  

Mr. Bareggi continued, “We see tremendous opportunities within Belgium to assist insurers in addressing challenges in their businesses through our share capital and reinsurance solutions.”  

The acquisition of Generali Belgium is Athora’s first purchase of a non-life business, but builds on a strong non-life track record of Athora’s strategic partner and investor, Apollo Global Management LLC (NYSE: APO) (together with its consolidated subsidiaries, “Apollo”).  Apollo’s current non-life investments include Tranquilidade (Portugal), Amissima (Italy), and Catalina Holdings (Americas and Europe).

Goldman Sachs International and Mediobanca served as financial advisors and Allen & Overy served as legal counsel to Athora.