AXA has agreed to terminate its previously announced sale agreement with private equity firm Cinven, which would have seen the insurer offload its AXA Life Europe (ALE) business for €1.2 billion (US $1.4 billion).
Alongside the release of its Q2 results, AXA said that certain closing conditions for the deal had not been met by the agreed long stop date.
Instead, the company said it will review its strategic options for maximising the value and efficiency of ALE, while working to ensure a smooth continuation of service of ALE’s policyholders.
Headquartered in Dublin, ALE is a variable annuity products platform that has been closed to new business since 2017.
It has more than 60 employees manages a portfolio of 248,000 insurance contracts with €5 billion reserves.
ALE distributes products across Europe through AXA’s network of entities in Germany, France, UK, Spain, Italy, and Portugal, as well as through third-party channels and via a reinsurance arrangement with AXA Japan.
Cash proceeds from the sale of ALE had been set to include €925 million from the potential sale of ALE shares and a capital distribution from ALE to AXA S.A. of €240 million.
The news comes as AXA reported a 48% decrease in underlying earnings to €1.9 billion for the first half of 2020, driven mostly by a 72% decline in property and casualty (P&C) business primarily as a result of the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.
