Generali has expanded its presence in Portugal with the acquisition of a local insurance company and service platform from Apollo Global Management, in a deal valued at €600 million.
Under the agreement, Generali will acquire 100% of Seguradoras Unidas for €510 million and AdvanceCare for €90 million.
Seguradoras Unidas is the second largest non-life business operator in Portugal with a 15.5% market share in the segment. It also operates in the life segment and posted total gross premiums of €800 million in 2018.
The takeover will increase Generali’s share of the Portuguese non-life market to 18.7%, and allow it to leverage Seguradoras Unidas’s agency network in the life market to develop protection products, in line with its three-year Generali 2021 strategy.
AdvanceCare, meanwhile, is a service platform operating primarily in the healthcare sector, and is Portugal’s second largest private player with a market share of around 30%.
Generali said that AdvanceCare’s capital light fee business is expected to be scalable in other countries and again fits well with its 2021 strategy to increase service-based revenues.
Seguradoras Unidas and AdvanceCare will be purchased from Calm Eagle Holdings S.á r.l. and Calm Eagle Parent Holdings II S.á r.l., entities majority owned by investment funds managed by affiliates of Apollo.
“With the acquisition of Seguradoras Unidas, Generali will become the second largest group in the Portuguese non-life segment,” said Jaime Anchústegui Melgarejo, CEO International of Generali.
“The transaction will enable us to optimise our strategic positioning in the country, to capture future growth opportunities, to achieve significant cost synergies through the integration of Generali Portugal and Seguradoras Unidas and to ensure the operational solidity of Europ Assistance in the Portuguese market,” he explained.
“The acquisition of AdvanceCare, which has a diversified institutional customer base, will also help the Group to acquire strong know-how in the healthcare sector and a scalable platform to develop in other countries. These acquisitions are an important step in the implementation of the Group’s three-year strategy, which aims to strengthen our leadership in Europe.”
Generali has been present in Portugal since 1942 and currently operates in the country’s life segment through Generali Vida Companhia de Seguros and in the non-life segment through Generali Companhia de Seguros.
Barclays Bank PLC, acting through its Investment Bank has acted as exclusive financial advisor to Generali on the transaction with Apollo.
The law firms Gianni, Origoni, Grippo, Cappelli & Partners, Sullivan & Cromwell and Morais Leitão, Galvão Teles, Soares da Silva & Associados acted as legal advisors.
