Swiss Life has bought the life insurance business from rival Nationale Suisse for an undisclosed sum, a deal that further expands the offering of Switzerland’s biggest dedicated life insurer.
The takeover allows Swiss Life to lower its cost base via synergies in the single-digit millions, it said, adding it would take on 32 employees of Nationale Suisse.
“The group life portfolio of Nationale Suisse fits well with our strategy of profitable growth,” Ivo Furrer, Swiss Life’s Chief Executive for Switzerland, said in a statement.
The deal is retroactively effective from January 1, 2011 and will be completed in the first half of the year, pending regulatory approval, it said.
According to the agreement, Swiss Life will also offer its customers select non-life insurance products from Nationale Suisse, which will offer Swiss Life’s life insurance policies.
In 2009, gross premiums from the Nationale Suisse portfolio came to 223 million Swiss francs ($231.2 million), whereas at Swiss Life they came to 5.88 billion francs.
Source : Reuters
