According to Chesnara, the deal involves the transfer of a portfolio of around 44,000 term and savings policies from the Belgian bank
Argenta to sell its run-off Dutch life portfolio to Chesnara. Photo: courtesy of Jean Housen/Wikipedia.org.
Chesnara, a UK-based life and pensions company, has agreed to acquire a portfolio of life insurance business in run-off from the Dutch branch of Belgian bank Argenta Bank-en Verzekeringsgroep for about €29.15m.
The acquisition will be carried out by Chesnara through the Waard Group, its existing closed book operation in The Netherlands.
According to the life and pensions company, the deal involves the transfer of a portfolio of nearly 44,000 term and savings policies from the Belgian bank to the Waard Group.
The acquired portfolio had gross assets of around €380m, as of 30 June 2019. The life insurance business involved in the deal made around €3.7m of profits before tax in 2018.
The deal follows last month’s acquisition and subsequent integration by Waard of a term life and endowment portfolio of around 6,500 policies from the Netherlands-based Monuta Insurance.
Chesnara said that the transaction is also aligned strongly with its goal of acquiring and integrating life and pensions firms and books of business within its target and value range.
Chesnara chief executive comments on the acquisition
Chesnara chief executive John Deane said: “This is a very pleasing acquisition for Chesnara. It will create material operating synergies with the existing Dutch business and, after the Monuta portfolio, it is the second deal that will be integrated into, and add value to, our Dutch closed-book platform Waard Group.
“The business is well capitalised, cash generative and profitable, while fulfilling our acquisition strategy of being economic value accretive, operating within our core target markets and offering a strong strategic fit at an attractive discount.”
The proposed deal is subject to approvals from the National Bank of Belgium and from the Dutch Central Bank for the change of control in addition to antitrust clearance from the Netherlands Authority for Consumers and Markets (ACM). Based on the receipt of the approvals, the transaction is likely to close in summer 2020.
Listed on the London Stock Exchange, Chesnara claims to administer more than a million policies with nearly £7.8bn of assets under management that are spread across businesses in the UK, the Netherlands, and Sweden.
The life and pensions company operates in the UK as Countrywide Assured, in the Netherlands as The Waard Group and Scildon, and in Sweden as Movestic.